Dylan update

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done an update on my firstborn. I guess he gets mentioned in lots of Lydia's updates so it's okay. Dylan started preschool in September and loves it. He turned four a couple weeks ago and had a Hot Wheels birthday party with 20 of his closest friends. Dylan is much more the social butterfly than his parents combined. He's the kid at the playground who says, "C'mon guys, let's do this!" and kids actually follow him. He's proving my friend Janice right when she said he was a natural-born leader when he was less than a year old.

Dylan and I went to Pine Springs Camp (Pine Screams Camp as Dylan calls it) in June together for Moms and Tots camp. He was the second-youngest kid there but he hung out with all the 5-year-olds in our cabin and had a blast. He still calls those boys his new friends and remember their names. He wants to talk about camp all the time. I think the structured time was a little much for his age, but the counselors dealt with it happily. For example, he wasn't keen on sitting and listening to stories or staying with the group (especially when the cool wide open woods were so near by) so the counselors and directors had to often run after him to get him to come back. This was during the time of day when the kids were with the counselors and the moms were off drinking tea and have Bible study. They all thought he was cute and they only lost him once and he was found quickly. (I think I got the laid-back Mom award that week. The counselor thought so at least. She was so impressed that I let Dylan dunk his chicken in his milk - anything to get him eat!)

Dylan's preschool class is comprised of 8 boys, 2 older by a month or two and the rest younger by up to 13 months. I have a parent-teacher conference next week so I guess I'll know more then about how Dylan is doing. But from what we gather, he likes being at school and likes the boys in his class but never seems to do any of the art projects, which the teachers make optional. He talks about the guinea pigs a lot and tells us he wants a pet (oh, and all his stuffed animals are "pets.") I kinda feel that the stuff they are working on in class now (colors and learning about family) is stuff he's known for a long time but I need to remember that I specifically chose this preschool because it wasn't too academically focused. I think the biggest thing he's gotten out of it is learning the routine and learning to take care of his stuff and eat his lunch away from Mommy. I think it will help with his self-sufficiency (I think I like that word better than independence but I'm not sure).

I'm really glad that I decided to send him to school this year. I remember reading Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson when Dylan was little and something in there prompted me to think, oh, maybe he won't be a kid that will do well in a traditional school structure and so maybe we need to think about alternatives. Given how active Dylan is and given his above-mentioned difficulty with sitting still, I later continued to think about whether school would be a good thing for Dylan. But despite all that, I do think it is working out well and he is thriving in that environment. Things may be different when he is actually required to sit in school but maybe by then he will be ready for that. I think he actually does like the structure and the new experiences within that structure. He participates in the "mandatory" stuff without complaint.

I think one of the reasons Dylan's doesn't like art projects is his low fine motor skills. I think Lydia has better fine motor skills than Dylan. So hopefully that's something we can work on. I think in exchange he got a double dose of gross motor skills. He's athletic and fast and has great balance. And the kid is actually what I would call "smooth." Last weekend we were at a wedding and Dylan was dancing and running around the dance floor and then he would slide across the floor in this perfectly smooth motion.

I think Dylan has gotten a lot of phonics though I don't think they work on it at school yet. We talk about a different letter each week and each week he can tell me words that start with that letter and he makes the sound of the letter before coming up with the word. He doesn't know the clusters yet and trips up on the hard ones sometimes (like g, j, c, s, k, z, u, x, but I do think he's got w).

We've been trying to get Dylan to come to "big" church with us for a few minutes before taking him down to Sunday school. He's done pretty well especially if Grandma and Grandpap or visitors are with us in the service, or if Daddy is doing sound and he gets to sit up in the sound booth and put the headphones on. The goal is to get him to sit until the sermon and we are working up to that. He seems to be doing better each week.

So here are Dylan's stats from his doctor's appointment: Height - 38 inches (10th percentile) and Weight - 32 lbs (25th percentile). He doesn't know that he's short yet. He hangs out with kids that are almost a year younger and 6 inches taller but he doesn't think anything of it which is good. The weight this is a little annoying for me (he's just now starting to fit into 2T pants in the waist! and they are still way too short for his legs), but better than the opposite problem of having an obese kid. He's wearing 3T shirts. Size 9 shoe right now (he was a 7 last winter and then an 8 around late spring and started wearing 9s around the end of summer).

Accidents have become less frequent but still frustrating because he waits till the last minute to go and that's why he has the accident. Dylan has been really good being dry at night (he's been out of nighttime pullups almost from the time he was potty trained). We did have a few nighttime accidents right in a row around the time preschool started but I'm hoping those are behind us now. (I'm finally to the point where I think the energy that I put into Dylan's potty-going is low enough that I might be able to handle starting Lydia potty-training, but still going to wait on that until after her birthday.)

Dylan still likes trains and cars and trucks. This happened a while ago (maybe a year ago) but he started talking about the "daddy trucks" and the "big boy trucks" if two trucks looked alike but were different sizes. Dylan also got into Dinosaurs and learned a lot of dinosaur names watching Dinosaur Train on PBSkids (like argentinosaurus and giganotosaurus). He really enjoyed visiting Dinosaur World when we went on vacation. We also pretend to be a family of dogs or T-Rexes or lions. Or Dylan says "I'm you guys' big dog" and then goes around the house pretending to be our dog. Dylan likes dressing up with our costume box and also playing games where we have to guess what he is after he gives us clues (he calls this the Halloween game - guess what he's dressed up as). We play this a lot at dinner. Getting Dylan to eat is still a daily struggle. The Halloween candy hasn't helped because he wants to eat candy instead of dinner. We try to use it as incentive but that doesn't always work. He goes through some days though where he eats everything (I even got an email from his preschool teacher saying he ate all his food and was still hungry one day). But then the next week he's back to not hardly eating anything even in his lunch at school. I guess this is normal but still frustrating especially when you're trying to get him to eat healthy.

For a while Daddy was telling Dylan "Dylan the race car driver" stories before bed. On his birthday I told him his birth story and so now he wants to hear that before bed. Nighttime routine goes something like this - time to get into pajamas...noooo!...yes, dylan, c'mon on....let's go potty first....nooo!!!.... - and after we use all our "tricks/discipline" to get him to do these things, we pray and if he's still and quiet he gets to hear a story. We sometimes read a book but haven't really lately. We ask him who he wants to pray for and he goes over to the picture frame I have in his room of pictures with all his friends and tells us he wants to pray for "me and anna," and "me and richie" and "me and jeremiah," etc. I think I want to teach him the Lord's Prayer so we are also going to start saying that at night too.

This is a lot but I'm glad I typed it all out. I'll be glad I did in a few years. Thanks for reading!

Lydia at 21 months

Still really loving this age with Lydia. Lydia gets excited about so many things. We arrive at our destination after a short car ride and the second we turn the car off she says "yeaaa." And she doesn't even know where we are going! Lydia is game for lots of things too. We say, who wants to ... and before we finish, she says "MEEEE!"

Lydia went pee on the potty for the first time a few months ago. Right now we are putting her on the potty when we change her diaper when we are home and she goes maybe every other time. Once she was outside playing and told Martin that she had to go and so he took her upstairs and she peed on the potty. I did buy her some underwear but I'm not starting to use it yet. She really can't pull down her own pants so I'm not sure what the point is in starting to potty train but then I think about how long it was before Dylan was going to the bathroom without our assistance and realize that I'd be helping for months and months anyway. Dylan still barely can go by himself (physical he can, but I think it's an emotional thing for him that he still needs us). Maybe that's why I'm not ready to potty train Lydia - I feel like I haven't finished potty training Dylan and feel like we need a break in between.

While we were on vacation a number of folks asked us how close our children were in age and someone even asked if they were twins (the were sitting down and I guess they didn't hear Dylan talking). I guess they look closer now that Lydia is older and since Dylan is still small for his age. They are almost wearing the same size although Lydia in girl clothes and Dylan in boy clothes of course.

Lydia has picked up lots of new words. She's in that stage where she says the last syllable if she can't say the whole word. So dinosaur is "saur" etc. She calls every color green. On Tuesdays while Dylan is at preschool, I think I'll be more intentional about doing the stuff I did with Dylan regarding colors and letters. And I want to help her draw since she seems good at it.

As you can see Lydia's hair keeps getting longer. I'm letting it grow out, her bangs are still short, because I don't want to pay for haircuts but I saw some really cute girl haircuts that tempt me to get it cut.

It's still up for debate as to whether Lydia's eyes are still blue. In some light they are and sometimes they look green. Martin's are the same way so maybe they'll stay like that.

New Pictures posted see links

End of Summer 2010 including Dylan's first days of preschool and Steven and Zak and Aunt Carrie's visit.

Beginning of Fall 2010 including more of the cousin's visit and our Friday night football game.

Pictures from vacation and Kings Dominion

I just uploaded pictures to Summer 2010, Trip to WV and KY, and Kings Dominion 201o.

new pictures uploaded

Please see our Summer 2010 album for our latest pictures.

Lydia update - 19 months

I really love this age. Lydia is pretty easy as far as care these days and she hasn't hit the terrible twos yet so she is always such a joy to be around. Lately she had been imitating her brother more and more and they are often found pretending to be dogs together or playing kitchen together (we scored a free play kitchen from our neighbor and a toy bin shelf too!).

Lydia got her top eye teeth right around the time she turned 18 months but I guess I didn't mention it in the last post. So she just needs the bottom two eye teeth now.

Lydia also started saying multiple word phrases shortly after she turned 18 months. She says "thank you" a lot (seriously, every time you give her something) and "here you go" and "up please." She repeats a lot of words too. She also has words for popsicle, swimsuit, and napkin although you have to hear them in context to get what she is saying.

I think I'm starting to see the beginnings of the "twos" in some of her behaviour though. She is starting to get upset more when she doesn't get her way and give me these frantic looks of indignation if she can't get what she wants. But the please and thank yous are much more common. She still uses signs along with some words (please, milk, help) I think as a way of putting more emphasis on her requests.

Besides loving to play with Dylan, Lydia wants to be around him all the time. It's getting harder to separate them for bedtime now. The first thing she says in the morning after "MOMMY" (i.e., mommy come pick me up) is "Dill." That's what she calls him. Dylan had to have a time out at the pool the other day and she wanted to go to. She follows him into the potty (which I'm hoping with help with the potty training) and can't stand when he is out of her sight. She's always putting on his shoes too. It's pretty cute. Dylan likes hanging out with her too and rarely wants her to leave him alone. Lydia has come to love Dylan's girl friend Anna and knows her name and gets excited to go over her house.

Lydia's hair is getting really long and most days I just put a Pebbles-like ponytail on the top of her head because that's all she will keep in. She pulls the bows out.

Lydia can hold a pencil better than most 2nd-graders I know! I have some pictures that I will post in my Summer 2010 album soon. She's amazing and I have to remember to allow her time to develop that since that's something that Dylan has no interest in and thus we rarely do it.

I still feel like Lydia is my baby though.

Pictures from our excursions

See my Spring album for pictures from our trip to NC, our friend Aidan's birthday party, Viva Vienna, and camp. Trip to FL and 4th of July pics still to come.

Lydia at 18 months

I can't believe how much my little girl is growing up!

Lydia went to the doctors on Friday for her checkup - she weighed 22 lbs 8.4 ounces (25 percentile) and was 31 inches tall (35 percentile). I didn't blog about Dylan's 18 month appointment so I can't link to a comparison. I guess I was a little busy back then (finding out I was pregnant with Lydia).

Lydia nursed for the last time on June 13, 2010. So 17.5 months just like Dylan. She has asked for it (with a sign) about 5 times since then but was easily distracted. I'm okay with it too. I feel like it was a really good time to quit. (Lydia was away from mommy for three days while Dylan and I were at camp so it was a nice stopping point). However, I think I'm gaining weight because I'm no longer nursing - you mean I actually have to start watching what I eat again?...bummer.

I think Lydia is going to be our performer. She often does things to get your attention like putting things on her head and smiling. She is so fun. She is also very compliant at this age (maybe we're just seeing the stark contrast with our very non-compliant older child). Lydia does things that you ask her to do like put things in the trash, pick up things, and give hugs and kisses. Her hugs are THE best thing in the world. She wraps her arms around your neck, puts her cheek to your cheek, and squeezes perfectly.

She has learned so many words in the last few weeks. Here are what I can remember now: Milk, book, duck, (quack), (she was on a words that end in K kick for a while), dirt, truck, trash, cracker, hat, bug, cat, puppy (and ruff ruff), pony, socks, (moo), more, eat, flower, Mom-mie, Dad-die, Dyan (for Dylan), bub-ble, apple, boon (for balloon), Ma-maw, PapPap, Pap-paw, and wa-wa (for water).

My mom also taught her where her elbow is so if you ask her she can point to it. Lydia also does all the motions to "wheels on the bus" including the mommies on the bus go "shu shu shu." She wowed her nursery volunteers with that one last Sunday. She also "sings" when we sing Dylan's mealtime prayer "God our Father." She also kicks her feet wildly like Dylan does when they are in their carseats (we turned Lydia's around now) and "Real Gone" by Sheryl Crow (on the Cars Movie CD) comes on. She also imitates her brother when he plays "Superhero" with this hooded towels that he (now they) use as capes. They play together much more now and I'm starting to feel like I have to two kids and not a kid and a baby.

Lydia still takes 2 naps per day, sometimes 2 hours each. She is such a good sleeper.

What we've been up to lately...

After being cooped up with the snow storms this winter and then having a busy early spring, we were glad to finally have a few free Saturdays where we could get out and do some hiking. Leading up to the weekend of April 24th, Martin asked me where we wanted to go. I said Mason Neck State Park but I was actually thinking of Leesylvania State Park. (We had been to both before. Mason Neck when I was pregnant with Dylan and Leesylvania when Dylan was about 7 months old. We are now starting to cycle back through the places we've been before. There are a few new places close to DC that we would still like to go but I think we are a little less adventurous now in not wanting to go somewhere that we haven't been before with two kids. Taking two kids hiking is adventurous enough. We've obviously given up trying to compete with the John and Laura B. for the most adventurous parents title.) Anyway, turns out it was a very fortunate (providential) mistake. The park was free that day because of a fair that was going on where they had booths that taught you about conservation and wildlife and all kinda cool stuff for kids...including PONY RIDES! Dylan rode the ponies twice and loved it. We also saw a reptile show, climbed in a fire truck, planted seeds, pretended we were birds migrating, played on the playground and still went for our hike. SCORE! I can't tell you the thrill it is to find something FUN, FREE, and Family-friendly to do and to just happen upon it rather read about it ahead of time just makes it extra fun. We needed this that morning too because that was the weekend that we had to find a new nanny.

The next weekend we went to Huntley Meadows - another hiking spot from Dylan's first year - and brought Amy with us which was super fun too. We didn't have the camera for those events but we did for the next ones - the next Saturday I had a meeting at church but Martin took the kids to a fun festival at Dylan's future preschool. That Sunday was Mothers Day and I chose to take the kids to the Leesburg Animal Park, where Dylan got to ride a pony yet again (Wasn't terribly impressed on the whole with the park though - they had some cool animals but it was mostly a glorified petting zoo.) And then last weekend was our last PALS trip of the year and on Sunday Martin and Dylan went with Russ and Richie to the airshow while mommy had a gloriously quiet Sunday afternoon at home while Lydia napped. See the link to my online album for Spring for some pics from these events.

This weekend we're headed to NC to visit Martin's brother and his family - this is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone to NC at the end of May so I think it's officially a tradition. After our return we are looking forward to a summer of more day trips (all our Saturdays from June 12th through the end of August are open!!! - this is unheard of!) and days at the neighborhood pool we joined.

I'm also very very very excited about going to camp with Dylan in mid-June. As far as a family vacation, we're looking to doing something low-key like rent a cabin for a week or long weekend right after Labor Day.

What's on tap for you this summer?

Update on the kids in bullet points

Dylan


-Gave up pacifier and afternoon nap. These two events were not unrelated but it's debatable which came first. I think giving up the nap was first though, which prompted me to take a drastic measure and cut up the pacifier. I was letting keep the pacifier to try to get more napping out of him but it proved to be less and less effective.


-Has been having a lot of accidents lately (once every day or two). May have to do with the change in day care providers but he says that he like the new place/nanny.


-Starting to come out of the Terrible Threes and has become a little more agreeable when told its time to eat or get dressed.


-Will start preschool two days a week in the Fall at Vienna Baptist Children's Center which is a block from our house.



Lydia

- Loves animals and has started to make animal sounds. She calls her stuffed lamb "ba." I must admit though that she does also enjoy playing with Dylan's trucks and making car noises.


- Has learned to shake her head "no." Ah, it begins...:) She also says "ishsh" for fish and has a word for Cheerios.


- Like to climb in chairs and sit like a big girl. She has been known to sit still for more than a minute...after Dylan, I didn't know children actually do this. She is also learning to go down stairs and the slides at the playground by herself.


- Is still nursing but I think the end is near.

Great Mother's Day Wishes

A number of folks inadvertantly gave me some great Mother's Day wishes in compliments last week.

"They don't get any cuter than that..." - women in grocery store

"Watching your daughter is like playing with a live baby doll." - lady in the church nursery

"You should have more kids because you are such a great mom and any kid would be lucky to have you as his/her mom." - a dear friend

And of course the kids added their own wishes to make my day:

"Happy Mudder's Day, Mom-my!" - Dylan

"Eh!" - Lydia as she hands me a card she and Daddy made for me.

Link to photos

Trip to PA and St. Patty's Day

Spring 2010 including trip to FL for Easter

Pictures from the last 6 months

Fall 2009 - Dylan's birthday, our anniversary, swim lessons, big snow storm #1

Winter 2010 - Grandma's birthday, Christmas, Lydia's birthday, Baltimore Train Museum, big snow storms #2 and #3, Valentines' Day, and pigtails

Lydia at 15 months

Stats first: 21lbs 2.8 oz. (20th percentile) and 29 1/4 inches (20th percentile) and head circumference was in the 55th percentile. Compared to Dylan, she weighs more and is in a higher percentile for weight.

Words/signs: ma-ma, da-deee (used for both Martin and Dylan - this used to be ah-da), ba-na-na, shoes, cheese, bird (sign and word), [waves when you say bye-bye], [claps when you say yea], [smacks her lips when you say kiss], all done (sign and word), milk (sign), more (sign), eat (sign).

Lydia has been become more picky with food but we can still get some cooked baby carrots or peas in her every once in a while. She still loves fruit and instant oatmeal and pasta and yogurt and cheese!! Oh does she love her cheese. The first time I heard her say the word, I don't think I had even said the word, she just saw me cutting it and toddled over and said "cheese" clear as day and very loudly. We started giving her raisens recently. Mealtime has become really difficult with her though. She wants whatever I'm eating as soon as I sit down. She doesn't like sitting in her chair for very long at all. Sometimes if I give her a spoon she'll eat something that 5 seconds early she was refusing but because it's on a spoon, she'll eat it.

Lydia is a climber like her brother but I don't think she's as crazy as he was. She will sit in my lap and just look around. Or she will get down and get a stuffed animal and then want back up in my lap (love this!).

I thought girls were going to be easier in this regard but Lydia is just about as wiggly as her brother was for diaper changes. But she actually helps me dress her by sticking out her arms or lifting her legs. It's amazing. She's actually helpful!

I think she's going to be potty trained a lot sooner than Dylan. Actually, I saw her squatting in the bathtub yesterday and quickly picked her up an held her over the toilet just in time. Then I sat her on the toilet for a minute to make sure she was done. She seemed happy to be there.

Lydia has begun, to my amazement, to follow little instructions - like hug the bear, sit down, pick up the toy. It's so cute and so cool to see her comprehension. She knows some of her body parts - I think hair was the first one she got and now mouth, eyes, and nose. Speaking of hair, it's starting to get long and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Ponytails and pigtails don't stay in very long.

Lydia loves to give kisses. Sometimes she puts both hands on your face and just plants one on you. It's so fun. Lots of people tell me how social she is. She's really engaging and doesn't wait for you to initiate interaction with her. She doesn't just respond to you, she initiates the interaction. She still smiles a lot.

Lydia loves animals. She squeals whenever she sees a cat or a dog. It's cute. She is starting to taking a liking to some of her stuffed animals too. With an animal, her thumb, and some sort of fabric to grab (mommy's shirt if no blanket is available), she is set.

Lydia is still a great sleeper and still takes two naps. If you don't let her take her morning nap she will try to take it anyway. She's pretty good at calming herself. She is still nursing at least twice a day sometimes more. The sessions are usually quick though and more often than not I'm putting her down to sleep when she's still awake.

Lydia had Roseola a few weeks ago. It's basically just a virus but apparently it's one of those where if you get it, you won't get it again. She had a high fever and then a rash after the fever was breaking. I stayed home from work one day with her. The doctor we saw that day didn't tell me that's what it was but when we went for her 15 month check up her regular doctor said that's must have been what it was.

Lydia at 12 months

So before she hits 15 months, I should tell you how Lydia has been growing and what she has been up to as a one-year old. At her 12 month doctors appointment, she weighed 17 lbs., 10.4 oz (5th percentile) and was 29 inches (50th percentile) tall. See here for Dylan comparison.

At about 12 months she got her first molar and now (almost 15 months) has four of them. That makes 12 teeth.

Lydia started STTN (finally) at about 12 and a half months. From about 4-5 months until then she had been waking up twice during the night. I think she just learned to soothe herself back to sleep. One night it took me a long time to get up to get her (both our doors were closed so I didn't hear her for a while) and by the time I got up, she was back to sleep. From there on, I just let her go back to sleep on her own and it worked. She started sleeping all the way through.

Lydia started taking a few steps at 12 and a half months but really starting walking at 13 months, 1 week - the week we were stuck in the house because of the snow storm. I remember Dylan taking one step (at 10 months) and then running the next day it seemed. Lydia took the more cautious route.

Lydia enjoyed watching the snow fall from the sky but only tolerated being out in it for so long. Martin says she's not as much of an outdoor lover as Dylan but I'm going to give her some more time. I think now that she's walking she will enjoy it more.

At about 12 months, I noticed how engaging Lydia is. She initiates interaction with you. It's kinda hard to explain and maybe it's just because she's an easy second child and I often feel guilty for not paying more attention to her, but this really amazes me. Instead of crying for attention, she will just smile at you until you look at her and then smile even bigger. It's almost like she's trying to encourage me. Sometimes, when I'm holding her she will turn my face with her hands to make me look at her, smiling all the while.

She has really started to interact with her brother more. He has learned what makes her laugh and will entertain her. She has also started to make her opinions known when she wants something. She has been know to say things that sound like banana and Dylan and she says ma ma and da da. We are working on the signs again, but we didn't start as early or were as consistent as with Dylan so it might take her a little longer to get them.

on self-discipline

I'm reading the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges that describes the subtle sins we commit day after day without even thinking about them (impatience, judgementalism, frustration, etc.). Yesterday I read the chapter on self-control and today I realized how undisciplined I've become lately. I'm sure you've noticed this in how bad I've become about updating my blog. But it's worse than that. I have no self-control with respect to food, spending time on the computer or in front of the TV, or my wondering mind when I'm supposed to be concentrating on something else. And I've realized today that one of the reasons I've become so bad at self-control (and this is no means an excuse but rather a realization of my situation) is that I've had fewer and fewer opportunities to exhibit self-control, particularly with my time. And in those instances when I do, I've been failing at being disciplined. I was remembering this morning how I used to get up at 6am everyday and go to the gym before work. Now I'm not saying that I should try to follow that same schedule again or even that I have to have scheduled exercise in my daily dealings again but I feel like I need to practice discipline in some respect so that I will be disciplined in general. Then when I've faced with other temptations not to be disciplined, like in not indulging every desire of my taste buds, I will be more practiced. Bridges makes that point in the book and I know there have been times in my life when discipline in one area led to discipline in another. Maybe it will be discipline with food that will lead to more discipline with my time. I know that I can't do this on my own and that I'm completely dependent on the Holy Spirit to give me the power to make changes. If you have a minute, please pray to this end. Who knows, maybe the result will be more blog postings?

Chores