On the charts

Dylan had his 15-month doctors appointment today. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 6.6 oz!!! That was the 5th percentile so he is now "on the chart" for his weight. For the other measurements he went down slightly in the percentages for height and head size but I don't think the nurse got good measurements because Dylan was so wiggly. His recorded height was 29 and 3/4 inches but I think he's talker than that.



The doctor said Dylan is doing great development wise. So a good report all around. When the doctor asked me if Dylan is saying any words, I realized that a lot more count than what I was counting. Plus, the signs count as additional words. And he just recently started saying 2 or 3 more words. [A few weeks ago, I had read something about how many words 12 month olds were suppose to have and I thought Dylan was behind because I only thought he had 2 or 3 words at 14 months. But I think he's right on now.] Here's a run down of Dylan's words:



Da - for Daddy. He also does the sign for Daddy...about 20 times a day in the form of a question, like he's asking "where's daddy?"



Uh-oh - but for this one he only repeats if we say it.

[more] - sign

[milk] - sign

[all done] - sign

[eat] - sign

[bye-bye] - sign

shoes - pronounced "juoos", he has also done the sign for this once or twice, this is a new one

balloon - pronounced "oon", this is a new one

ma ma - only when he's upset



itsy-bitsy - pronounced "ispa, sispa," this is relatively new ever since I started singing the itsy-bitsy spider to him, he does some of the hand motions for it too, actually anytime I start singing anything he does this.



So I guess he has about 10 words.



I am still nursing Dylan about twice a day, although I'm going to try to get that down to once a day and then quit all together next month. I've been still nursing because it's the easiest way to get Dylan to calm down for sleep and because I was concerned he wasn't getting enough liquids from the sippy cups. I'm not concerned about the liquids anymore, I think he is getting more now. So now it's just getting him to sleep without nursing. I think what spurred me on to do this was Martin putting Dylan in my lap yesterday while they were playing and Dylan wanting to nurse then. I want him to be able to sit in my lap without thinking about nursing.



As far as other eating goes, Dylan eats a lot of fruits and dairy which is all table food. He's still eating baby cereal and purreed meat and veggies but the doctor didn't seem to think that was an issue. I just can't get him to eat "adult" meat, veggies, and oatmeal. He spits them out.



He's still using a bottle at day care although I've asked Bushra to try to get him to take his milk in a sippy cup. Hopefully in the next two weeks he'll be done with the bottle.



That's about it as far as Dylan's update. Oh, the car seats...we get to turn them around now! We will definitely turn around the one in the Civic that Dylan rarely rides in - the cheaper Graco seat, which is actually leaning the way it is in now and is practically in the front the seat, it's so big. But I recently have been hearing that it's safer for the kids to be rear-facing even past 20 lbs and one year so I think I'll keep the Britax that we have in the Maxima rear-facing until either Dylan or I can't stand it anymore.

Fun pictures

These are the first pictures from our new camera. I have a ton more to download.

This is Dylan in his Steeler gear, in case you couldn't tell.


Dylan has been climbing into the chairs at the dining room table and sitting in them recently. It's really cute. He usually eats before we do so when we eat he still comes to the table and sits in the big chairs and watches us eat...and tries to climb on the table and signs that he wants food but when we give it to him he spits it out. Here he is eating a snack of Cheerios.

The girls and their boys

If you're happy and you know it, touch your ear.


Now, mommies, hold your boys hands down.

The flash seems to have the same effect on Dylan and me.

Dylan and Steven

Here are pictures from our visit to my sister's house last month. It was fun to see Dylan and his cousin play together.

Christmas at the Beach

Our old camera came through one last time for us with these amazing beach pictures of Dylan on Christmas day.



Dylan was much less afraid of the beach this time. He even braved the water with his feet.

Trip to Daytona pictures

The day after Karl's wedding we drove to Daytona and only made 3 stops. We left at 7:30am and got to Martin's parents house at 9pm. One of the stops was to the Georgia Pig. Making this stop is a tradition of Martin's family. Martin says its the best BBQ ever. I thought it was okay. The place is crazy though - the parking lot isn't paved and the place is basically a shack. You'd never find it if you didn't know where it was even though it's very close to the highway. And for some strange reason you couldn't take pictures inside so here is a picture of Martin outside on the porch. He was very happy after eating lots of meat.

Here's us Christmas Eve at Martin's grandmother's church.
Christmas morning at Martin's parents house. The balloon was from Martin's grandmother's birthday almost two month earlier. Dylan found that more interesting than the wrapped presents. After we got them unwrapped he did get into his toys. Although he did go back to the balloon periodically over the stay.

Reading with Grandpa...
I think I'll just take a break and sit down for a while...

Growth Spurt

Dylan is definitely going through a growth spurt right now. He's eating a lot which is usual for Dylan and he's sleeping a lot - and at a regular time (10am to noon). And his 6-9 month clothes are starting not to fit. I got him on the scale and with clothes, a dirty diaper, and while holding 2 rubber ducks, he weighed 21 lbs. He's got two more weeks to be 20 lbs without a diaper.

Dylan has been so interested in food that he climbs up on the dining room chair and sits down and points to his Cheerios when he's hungry. Last night, while Martin and I were eating dinner (Dylan ate earlier since I got home late), Dylan climbs up in the chair next to Martin and starts doing the sign for more. We try giving him some of our food (rice, red pepper, broccoli, little bits of meat) but he usually spits it out. He is eating most fruits with his hands now. He like bananas and clementines a lot. And he eats bread and Cheerios and cheese by himself too. We're working on veggies. I think I need to steam them more to make them softer so he'll he them.

Dylan is very interactive with us. He comes over to us and if our feet are exposed he tickles them. He likes when we sing to him. He starts to dance. He makes fists with his hands and shakes them up and down. That's his dancing. I'll have to get a video of it. I'm still trying to figure out the new camera we got with our Christmas gift cards.

Karl's Wedding

Here are some pictures from the wedding Martin was in last month. I know some of you wanted to see proof that Karl actually got married, unbelievable, I know. The first two pics are from the rehearsal dinner. For my readers who are not married to him, the guy on the left in the first picture is Josh who was another groomsman.

Karl is really into music (a rock snob if you will) and while there was no dancing at the wedding, Karl made a wedding CD and gave a copy to us. The first song is the song that Karl and Katherine would have danced to if they had dancing at their wedding. The second song was the song that Martin and I danced to at our wedding, and the third song was the song Josh and Catherine danced to at their wedding. I was totally impressed that Karl 1) knew songs we danced to at our weddings and 2) put them on the CD. Karl is probably the only other guy besides Martin who knows which song we danced to at our wedding ("In your eyes" by Peter Gabriel).

Anyone else still have their Christmas decorations up?

When does it become noticable to neighbors? I'm going to try to find sometime this weekend to take them down but I wonder what my deadline is before people start talking. Jan 15th, MLKJr Day, have I already passed the deadline?

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

Dylan is all about imitating us these days. We are trying to use this to our advantage, like in teaching him how to pray, brush his teeth, blow his nose, etc. Sometimes its just too funny - like when we cough and he imitates that. Of course we need to be careful too as he could start imitating our bad habits - I think I've already caught him reaching for his hair to twirl like I do.

I started singing Itsy-Bitsy Spider to Dylan and he loves that. He sort of flaps his four fingers on each hand together and says "SSSPA, SSSPA" when I sing it. I think he's trying to say Itsy-Bitsy. Actually he seems to be practicing his "S" sound a lot - he points at the ChriStmaS tree and says "sss."

I guess this is a good time to learn animal sounds and the like. Anyone have any other imitation games that could be useful for learning?

Being Daddy

Dylan likes to put Daddy's badge around his neck. Actually he seems like everything about Daddy these days. In the morning, after I nurse him which is the first thing we do, he says "Da?" and does the sign for Daddy, wondering where Martin is.

He even likes to try Daddy's shoes on. Those are big shoes to fill son.

THE mantle

For the 3 and a half years that I have lived in our condo, I have wanted to get a mantle for our fireplace. It's been a dream of mine to have this mantle especially around Christmastime so we could hang stockings. This mantle has been the desire of my heart and my emotion I feel towards it is only surpassed by my love for my husband and my son. I have longed for this day since the first time I walked into the house when we house shopping nearly 3 ½ years ago. This year it became a reality. In the words of my husband, it is now the third love in my life. As an anniversary present to each other Martin and I agreed to get the mantle. But after 3 Saturdays that passed with out us finding the time to shop for it, I thought my hopes of having it for Christmas were crushed, especially since we'd probably have to special order it. These things typically need to be ordered in general and especially in our case since we have a light switch "brilliantly" placed 4 inches from the edge of the fireplace. Well, God provided the perfect mantle in time. And my husband gave me a wonderful gift. The store had a one in stock that was exactly the right size and shape and color. And all we had to do was put it up. Martin (and consequently my dad who got recruited to help) were under pressure to make sure the mantle remained perfect and they did great...:) The skilled craftsmen adeptly performed the task of installing the mantle. The mantle is perfect. I would just stop and stare at it and smile and still do. As I welled with joy over this masterpiece of carpentry, I began to decorate it for the Christmas season. My mom found the perfect stocking holders - 5 holders that spell PEACE. (Apparently that means she's expecting no more than 3 grandkids from us...:) I had also already bought some greenery and made the stockings (see below). Here is the result.

Pre-Christmas Pictures

Here's Dylan in a Santa outfit for a party we went to.

Opening presents with Grandma and Grandpap two weekends before Christmas since we were going to the other Grandparents in FL for Christmas. It took us forever to open presents since we tried to get Dylan to open his own. He was much more interested in the big blue bag. We couldn't even get him interested in ripping paper. But oh well. We should cherish these days.

Christmas Decorations

The "extras" of the holidays (decorating, mailing cards, traveling, parties, concerts and recitals, etc.) have pushed out blogging on my priority list for the last month so I need to catch up on a few things. This year (since we decided to finally get a mantle shelf for our fireplace, see later post) I decided to make Etner family stockings. So I go to Michaels to get the stuff and wonder how many I should buy. Knowing that we would like to have more kids, and knowing how I would be really annoyed if all our stockings didn't match, I decided to buy enough stockings to cover any future children. I bought 8 stockings all together. Not saying that we plan on having 6 kids but just in case, and I bought green ones for the boys and red ones for the girls (4 of each) so if we have 3 boys we're still covered. My mom is slightly worried that I'm actually serious about having many children which would mean I'd be having children into my 40s (oh no!). We shall see what the Lord brings, but in the mean time, I'm preparing...:)

Here are the stockings I made. This is about the extent of my craftiness, anything more I'd really screw up. I was pleased with the result.