What a Difference a Year Can Make - Year 2

Just as I did last year for Dominic's 1st birthday, I wanted to look at what he changes have taken place in Dominic from his first birthday to his second.  It's so funny to see how different he is now from how he was just 12 months ago.  

Dominic on his 1st birthday

1. Physically - At a year old, Dominic weighed almost 23 pounds and measured at over 30 inches in height.  A year later, he weighs over 29 pounds and measures at 35 inches in height.  He barely fits in his 2T shirts, so we’re now buying 3T shirts for him.  He has been wearing 18 month pants because of his thin waist, which have suddenly grown too short for his legs.  So we’re now buying 24 month pants that are too loose on his waste in order to avoid the high-water look.  A year ago, he was wearing 18 month shirts and pajamas and 12 month pants.  Additionally, he’s up to size 7 shoe and wears size 5 diapers after wearing size 4's at a year old. Dominic has all of his teeth except for the four 2-year molars which are in the process of coming in (hence the fingers in the back of his mouth at all times).  You will commonly see Dominic sucking his thumb especially when he’s tired, bored, or being shy.  Dominic had his first haircut a couple of weeks before his first birthday.  Since then he has had 6 or 7 more.  He has the Italian thick hair (from both Mommy and Daddy’s sides of the family), but it is light brown in color.  He still has the darkest brown eyes I've ever seen, which of course I love, and loves to furrow his eye brows at everything still to do this day.

13 months old, perfecting his walking at the beach

2. Sleep - This time last year Dominic took 2 naps a day for about 2 hours each and slept 12 hours straight at night (9:00pm to 9:00am).  Dominic continues to be what most consider to be a “good sleeper.”  However, he sleeps much more lightly than he did even 6 months ago.  These days he takes 1 nap a day that generally lasts about 2 hours from 1:00pm to 3:00pm.  Dominic dropped his “morning nap” just after his 1st birthday.  This transition took several weeks.  Dominic still sleeps around 12 hours a night with his bedtime being 8:00pm and waking up around 8:00am.  Dominic continues to sleep in a crib (a new convertible one) with his blackout curtains to keep the room dark, a sound machine on, and still wears a sleep sack to keep him warm.  He doesn’t sleep as well without that sleep sack and I feel like it keeps him from being able to climb out of his crib, so why mess with a good thing?  

14 months old, playing in his sandbox 

3. Eat - What and how Dominic eats has been one of the biggest changes of the year.  When he turned 1, Dominic was still drinking breastmilk in bottles in addition to eating baby and “real” foods.  He had 3 meals a day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner with 2 snacks between those meals - in addition to taking 3 bottles of breastmilk after breakfast and lunch as well as at bedtime.  He kept drinking breastmilk until I got pregnant with Blake and had to stop before the end of my first trimester (around 15 months).  I remember being completely anxious over dropping the bottles at a year, but it ended up not being a big deal at all.  We tried countless brands of sippy cups and finally he figured out how to use a straw cup.  Dominic’s “solids” were primarily spoon-fed or finger foods, and I had to cut everything up for him back then.    

These days Dominic has 3 meals a day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He’s the pickiest eater ever.  He eats a veggie-fruit yogurt, Cheerios (still a favorite), and fruit at breakfast along with a partial straw cup of cow’s milk (whole milk).  At lunch he usually eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (his all time favorite food) with milk and sometimes a fruit or Cheerios. Dinner includes either whatever Brian and I eat or something he’ll eat if it’s not a kid-friendly food.  The dinners that he’ll eat usually include things like spinach pizza or grilled cheese with spinach (anything where we can hide the veggies). Dominic ends up drinking about 2 cups of milk a day plus a veggie-fruit yogurt smoothie (veggie-fruit yogurt with some extra milk) each afternoon.  We do not give Dominic juice because of the sugar, so the only other thing he drinks is water.  

Dominic loves PB&J, yogurt, Cheerios, graham crackers, pizza, spaghetti, meatballs, and cookies, but refuses to eat veggies (unless I hide them in something he likes), cake (of all things!), ice cream, and anything else “new.” A little before he turned 1, he developed into a picky eater and has only become pickier up until recently.  

15 months old, showing off the news that he was going to be a big brother! 

4. Behavior - Just after Dominic turned 1, being an overachiever Dominic decided to slowly start entering the “Terrible Twos” very early.  He’ll go through waves of tantrums and yelling between periods of time when he’s a perfect angel.  Once Dominic learned to say no, he realized that he’s an actual individual who can say no to just about anything and that was when it was all over for us.  At least one tantrum and some whining every day is pretty customary at this point.  Around 16 months we started giving Dominic timeouts which helped but we think his lack of language at this point really contributes to his frustration level and therefore he has tantrums more often.  I’m really crossing my fingers and praying that by this time next year (earlier would be even better!) that Dominic will be over this stage of his life and out of the Terrible Twos, considering that he started it so early.  Luckily, he’s so sweet, cute, and funny between tantrums, which makes up for the bad behavior.  

Such a silly 16 month old, helping me with the laundry. :)

5. Home Life - One of our biggest changes has been our family and home life.  Dominic’s role in our family has changed from only child to big brother with Blake’s arrival and so far it’s been very successful.  To adjust to the new member of our family, we moved Dominic into his larger “big boy” bedroom and bought him a new convertible crib.  We made the change gradual by moving his old crib into his new room with him for a few weeks before we gave him the new crib and moved the old crib back to the nursery.  Dominic is an incredible big brother at this point, loving to kiss Baby Blake all of the time and tries to play peek-a-boo with him.  Dominic loves pushing his little brother in his baby swing and baby “talking” him.  To see them interacting truly warms my heart.  

17 months old, enjoying one of his favorite places - the pool.

6. Language - Not long after Dominic’s first birthday, he started saying, “No,” and has continued from there with more and more words.  He, of course, was saying “Mama” and “Dada” before that.  At this point, he says over 100 words and understands most of what we say.  Although he hasn’t been much of a talker - yet, I feel like he’s getting there and talking more and more.  My favorite phrase he says is “I love you.”  Dominic has been a babbler since early on and continues to do so.  Right now, he loves talking like a monster, and I have to say that I love when he does it too because it’s hysterical.  

This 18 month old loved helping his mom out (after he made the mess). 

7. "Skills" - At a year old, Dominic was working on more physical skills, but at this point, he’s accomplished a lot of those techniques and now is concentrating on more academic-type skills.  Dominic mastered the appropriate gross motor skills at the beginning of his second year and now is working more on his fine motor skills (coloring, drawing, etc.)  He continues to work on perfecting eating with utensils.  He can eat with a spoon and a fork but prefers not to because it takes longer for him.  

“Academically,” Dominic has come a long way.  He can idenfity the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet as well as the numbers 1-9 (other than 7).  Dominic knows some of the beginning of sounds of the letters.  He can count from 1-10 now (very new skill!) and is working on the alphabet song.  He knows some of the shapes and some of his colors as I'm still introducing these concepts to him.  

Such a happy 19 month old, ready for school in the morning

8. Activities - Last year at this time Dominic was just learning to walk.  He perfected this at the beach where he was able to fall on the sand and learn to get up from the sitting position independently (without pulling up).  These days I can’t get him to stop running around!  He walks up and down the steps, with ease holding on the railing or someone’s hand.  He can also walk up and down stairs without holding on but only does this on the bottom few steps or a short set of stairs.  This active little boy continues to love to climb and is now jumping and very physical with everything and anything he does.  Catch Air and Monkey Joe’s are two of his favorite places in the world.  He’s a boy after all.  

At a year old, Dominic participated in 2 playgroups, mommy-and-me swim lessons, and story time at the library.  These days his schedule is much busier.  Dominic and I are still involved in 2 playgroups in addition to a mommy-and-me music class.  I give Dominic swim lessons myself and he’s already a fantastic swimmer for his age.  Swimming is one of his favorite activities.  He also goes to Parents’ Morning Out two mornings a week for 3 hours a day.  We stay very busy!  

20 months and loving the fall 

9. Interests - When Dominic was around a year old, he was all about his Learn and Groove that Aunt Steph gave him as a shower gift before he was born.  He started using it at 4 months and loved it until he was about a year and a half.  These days he still plays with that toy but very infrequently.  Now he’s completely obsessed with trains, cars, and trucks - anything with wheels.  He loves making the “choo choo” and “vroom vroom” noises as he moves them around every surface in the house (including Blake’s head at times).  



Dominic’s favorite game is “Chase” where someone chases him around the house.  This was hard for me to do when I was pregnant with Blake, but luckily now I’m able to chase him around again.  Peek-a-boo is something he still enjoys playing as he did when he was around a year old,, but now he’s the one that hides, pops out, and says “Peek-a-boo” to us.  He especially is into playing this with Blake now. :)  

21 months and loving his new role as a BIG BROTHER to Baby Blake!! 

Dominic still loves watching videos of himself and other kids on my phone.  While I was sick and tired when I was pregnant, he started really liking the TV - something he had a hard time sitting down long enough to watch up until that point.  For a while “Super Why” was his favorite show, then “Snoopy” movies, and now it’s Curious George.  

Dominic is still very into music.  This time last year he loved listening to music - either a CD or Brian and I singing to him.  I think as a result of these things plus his Parents’ Morning Out and mommy-and-me music class, Dominic has started to love singing the songs himself.  It started with him singing “Five Little Monkeys” when he stuck his finger up and said forcefully, “No!” when we would sing, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed.”  Now he sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” and several other songs.  Basically, all of the songs that we’ve been singing to him for the last 2 years are now his favorite songs to try to sing!  

22 months and totally into Christmas and Santa.

10. Personality -  Over the last year, Dominic has definitely developed his personality more than anything else.  I commonly refer to him as a “goof-ball” because he’s so silly. Dominic is very “high energy” but also loves cuddling.  He loves receiving praise and cheers whether it be for sliding down a slide, singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” or identifying the letters of the alphabet.  He’s mischievous at times, but I have to say that when he gives me that look, I can’t help but laugh (at least on the inside).  Dominic is a huge joker, which I actually love about him despite the fact that it often makes more work for me.  Not a day goes by when I won't find myself laughing at him for something or another.


In addition to being silly, Dominic is also very shy. He takes a while to warm up to most people (especially men) and in new settings, but once he knows you, he typically loves you. When he is hesitant in a situation, he is extremely quiet and often becomes extremely clingy to Brian and/or me. Dominic has become very polite, almost always thanking people when they give him something. He says, "Bless you," whenever someone sneezes...or coughs. Dominic also loves excusing others if they burp - including his baby brother. Dominic is very stubborn strong-willed, as he is still learning that he can't always do what he wants to do. Although Dominic is a very spirited person, he also has the biggest heart of anyone I know.  If I cry (or pretend to cry) he comes over to me and gives me a kiss.  He has welcomed his baby brother into our home, giving him kisses and hugs constantly.  Dominic can be a little wild and crazy at times, but he is a boy after all and makes life more fun than I could ever imagine!!

23 months and very active!

Comparing Dominic to the little baby he was a year ago, I can't believe how much he has grown and changed over the last 12 months. He's truly become a little boy, growing into his own person more and more. What a difference this year has truly made in his life and our whole family's life as we watched our baby develop into this amazing little person who we love so much!!

2 years old and the silliest, wildest, funniest, sweetest, most precious toddler I could imagine :)