Dylan's first "solid" food

Rice cereal! This was back in April. Dylan has had oatmeal, barley, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas. We thought he was pretty much indifferent to the food....well, we knew he liked eating when we could pull him away from exploring but we thought he'd eat anything...until we tried the peas. Man did he fuss. He did NOT like the peas. Sorry, didn't get a picture of that.

That's my mom helping to hold him in his Bumbo seat while I feed him.

He looked a little worried at first...

But then he dug right in..

Pictures from my family's visit

Steven showing Dylan the ropes........well, more like the coasters.

The aunts and the nephews.

Fun pictures

Dylan loves his bath....even when Daddy sprinkles water on him. This is the only G rated bath picture we have so far that I can post.

"Hey, did I tell you the one about the horse who...."

Hiking in DC

This picture was taken on our hike to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in NE DC, the second of our 60 hikes within 60 miles hikes. The gardens are near the Anacostia River. There are lily ponds there (it's sort of like a lily farm) and the lillies bloom in July so we might go back then - my parents will be here too.




"Even after a 2.5 mile hike, I'm still content."

Dylan catching a football...

Music Class

Here are the pictures from Dylan's music class with Kathryn. We participated in the spring session and this week and next week we are going to do two classes that Kathryn is holding at Meadowlark Gardens. That's Kathryn, Laura B., Jack, Marie, and Julia with me and Dylan. Laura H. and Jamie were also in our class.

Does this fit in my mouth?

Hiking with a 30 year old....

It's really weird to be posting these pictures of us all bundled up considering it was 90 degrees here today! These pictures were only taken 7 weeks ago. For Martin's (30th!) birthday, I bought him the book, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of DC and told him we would one hike the Saturday after his birthday. We ended up going to Scott's Run which is right outside the beltway off of Georgetown Pike. We've driven past it a million times but never thought to go there. It was a great little hike with lots of neat views of the river. Since then we've done 3 more hikes from the book and plan to do another on Monday.

Dylan working on sitting up - April 2007

Finally some pictures

I can touch my toes, can you Daddy? Look, they are right there....

I pray that my daddy comes and gets me before I fall off this couch.....

The Question

So it's official, we've been asked - the question - when's the next one going to be coming along? Actually this happened about a month ago but that was during my blogging hiatus. The question came (partially tongue-in-cheek) from our dear friend Amy. And we've subsequential heard it from a few others since. Geesh people, give us a break...:) Actually I don't mind, we've started to think about it ourselves. But I think we want to space our children out a little farther than this. It's ultimately up to God's leading but I can at least say we're not feeling led at the moment.

Mommy Update

Last Friday I had an appointment with my OB/GYN for my annual exam. Don't worry, you can
keep reading...

The doctor was sort of acting as my PCP - he ordered some blood test to check thyroid and liver functions and asked me about exercise and such. The blood tests came back with great results - my cholesterol is 166 (HDL - 68, LDL 90). Apparently the HDL is even higher than the range they suggest - not sure that's a good thing - like why would there be a range that didn't go all the way up if going beyond the range was even better? The doctor also noted that I was back down within 5 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight and said "I suppose that is a good weight for you." I don't want it to be a good weight. I want to lose 15-20 lbs but he meant well.

When the doctor asked me how much I exercise in a week, I was honest and said I walk about twice a week for about 3-4 miles each time. And he told me, *me*, that I need to exercise more, like 5-6 times a week. But I'm an exercise freak, I tell myself. I could *I* have to exercise more. I used to get up at 6am to work out before work 5 days week! I used to go to spinning classes! I could this identity crisis have happened?!!? I'm not living up to what I thought I was!

Well, first of all, I think the man's definition of exercise is a little different than mine. He thought walking 3-4 miles was a lot. He said I should exercise 5-6 times a week but that I didn't have to do as much as I was doing each day, but if I had the energy to do 3-4 miles then go for it. Time is the binding constraint for me, not energy. So maybe he would consider the walking that I do on my way to and from work two days a week as exercise for the day. And then I only need to add one more day to get to his, what I would consider, bare minimum requirement.

Nonetheless, twice this week so far I've done this 15 minute Cindy Crawford workout. It's basically, if you only had 15 minutes to work out and you were going to do the most effective total body/post-baby exercies, these are the ones you would do. Squats, lunges, (although, unlike the video's suggestions, I think you need to weight at least 3 months post partum before doing those) abs, push ups, kegals, pelvic tilts, and stretching. The "aerobics" section is, I kid you not, 2 minutes long - I guess the idea is just to get your heart rate up for the the other exercises. But I was actually sore the day after I did it the first time. I'm going to try to do that 3 days a week and then do more walking. I've also considered taking the stairs when I trek up to the 5th floor to the lactation room three times a day at work. That's 4 huge flights to climb. I need more motivation to tackle that one. And I should try to get to the gym at least once a week since I am paying for the membership.

All this does not help my case in the typical do we do chores or go hiking discussion Martin and I have every Saturday. Usually hiking wins because I love being outside, I love doing things with my hubby, and I love to get the exercise. But if we don't move Dylan out of our bedroom soon ( a chore that requires a trip to the storage unit and some organizing that would wipe out a Saturday afternoon) he's going to sleeping in our room until he's 2! With it being a holiday weekend, I think I can put off the hiking until Monday so hopefully this will happen this Saturday. That's the great plan for Memorial Day weekend.

Dylan update

See below for a report on Dylan's 6 month doctor's appointment and on starting solids. Since we've been so busy it's hard to say if Dylan is sleeping better. Although I *think* he may be getting on a good schedule of going to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 and then I wake him up to nurse before I go to bed and then he sleeps until 5:30. Sometimes he wakes up before that but I can just put his pacifier back in and he goes back to sleep. Sometimes he only makes it until 4am. But when I feed him at 4am or 5:30 he goes right back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:30am. This week should be pretty normal so we'll see if it sticks.

Dylan is working on sitting up. I have a video to post of Dylan trying to sit up (and doing it for a short time). That was taken over a month ago - he still hasn't gotten much better at it. He doesn't really like sitting still long enough to sit up by himself and we figure since his head is relatively bigger than the rest of him he just has a hard time balancing...:) I think he's going to crawl before sitting up. He's all over the place. He rolls and schooches around and creeps as they call it - he can wiggle around enough to get to a toy that's slightly out of his reach. And now he has just started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth.

Today, Dylan cut his first tooth. We figured it has been in the making for a while. He's been drolling a lot and gnawing on things. The tooth hasn't bothered him much though. He hardly cried all day. I gave him a cold teething ring before he went to bed and he loved it. That's it for now....more soon.

Where have I been?

Wow, sorry for not updating for so long. I'll try to explain what we've been up to and why I haven't updated this blog lately by listing things in bullets - a style I'm borrowing from Nancy. I'll be posting pictures of most all these things soon.

• With the weather getting warmer we've been going for more walks in the evenings and on Saturdays.
• Dylan and I are taking a music class with Kathryn. This Wednesday is our last of 6 classes..:(
• My parents and sister and nephew were here visiting for a few days.
• Dylan starting eating cereal! He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, and barley so far and he's doing great with it. We're up to twice a day. Looking forward to starting yellow veggies next week.
• Dylan had his 6 month check up and shots two weeks ago. He weighed in at 13 lbs 11oz (5 percentile), was 24.5 inches long (10 percentile) and his head circumference was in the 50th percentile. The doctor continued to comment on how strong and alert Dylan is. He wasn't concerned about the weighted. He said Dylan is just burning a ton of calories because he is so active. Bushra and the folks in the nursery at church keep commenting on how active he is.
• I couldn't believe that Dylan didn't even weigh 14 lbs yet so I also took him to the support group that day. He weighed the same there and I weighed him before and after feeding him and figured out that he got 4 oz. I was starting to feed him less often since I thought he was getting more each time but since then I'm trying to get back to an every three hour nursing schedule. That's in addition to the cereal. I was going to use water to mix the cereal because I was burning through my stockpile of milk, but I decided to continue to mix the cereal with breastmilk to give Dylan more calories. I bought a handpump to just pump a little at a time for the cereal.
• We've had three busy weekends in a row. One Saturday we went to the White House on a PALS trip with the STEPdc kids. Then from there we went to a party at the home of one of Martin's co-workers. And then the next day we went to visit Nancy and Duncan. The following weekend we traveled to Nashville for the wedding of one of Martin's college roommates. We stayed with John and Kelly who used to live in DC and got to tour Nashville some before the wedding, including seeing the Country Music Hall of Fame. From there, we went to Black Mountain, NC to see Martin's brother, sister-in-law Kelly, and our nephews Savva and Jeremiah (check out their stained glass business). We stayed with our friend Kelli who used to work at our church and now works for the Leavening Agency. We also saw our friends the Fooses. Yes, we know 8 people who live in Black Mountain, NC and yes, we saw 3 Kelly/i's last weekend. This weekend, we spent all day Saturday at the wedding of a friend of mine from W&J. She got married in her hometown of Newville, PA which was only about a two hour drive from our place. Dylan did great traveling and being on the go with his active parents.
• I've been spending some time preparing for my friend Patricia's baby shower which is this coming Saturday. She is the fourth gal in our Bible Study to have a baby boy within the last year. She is due at the end of June.
• Snapfish was having a free shipping deal so I spent a lot of time uploading all the pictures that I hadn't printed out yet and ordered them. I got over 300 pictures.
• We've finally been able to do some shopping and do some errands that were piling up. We used our Walmart gift cards from the shower, starting looking at sofa beds, got the oil changed in both cars, shopped for wedding presents, both Martin and I went to the eye doctor, and we got our rings inspected and cleaned. We made this trips fun by also going out to eat those nights.

E.T. pictures

So remember the scene in ET where ET is hiding in the stuffed animals.....see if you can find Dylan in the pictures below...:)

Meeting more friends

A couple weeks ago Dylan and I visited with our friends Linda and Lea and Erik. Unfortunately, the only time we could meet was during the day so Tor and Martin missed out. I met Tor and Linda in grad school and have known Lea and Erik since they were born. Lea was the flower girl in our wedding and I used to baby sit her. It was so fun to see her with Dylan. She was taking care of him while we were there.

Dylan in his rocker

My thoughts on working part time

I haven't posted about work yet because I haven't had the time but I've been collecting my thoughts on this for some time. Let me start off my saying that going back to work has worked out really well. Dylan is doing great at daycare and we've got the routine down now. There was a little adjustment at first - Dylan eating enough at daycare from the bottle, me figuring out my system with pumping and storing milk and cleaning all the stuff that goes along with that, and all of us learning how to get out the door on time. But we have it figured out now and it's going well.

I'm really enjoying working part time. I like my job a lot better and I'm more productive per hour than I was before which makes me feel better about my salary. And there hasn't been a time yet where I feel like I had to say no to work. I was particularly concerned about this on the days that I telework (MWF). But it hasn't been a problem. Last week I was asked to help out with an immediate need and I was able to and I just clocked two extra hours. Martin got home about the time when I had to do this so he was able to watch Dylan while I worked. I missed my class at the gym but that's all. And there have been lots of times where my boss has emailed me and I have happened to be online at that time and was able to give him an immediate answer. I'm sure there will come a time (esp now that the weather is nice and I'll be out more) that I won't be home when I get that call from work but at least now I'm established a foundation of being available.

I feel good about taking Dylan to day care. Of course the first day I balled but since then it's been fine. I'm comforted by the fact that since it's only two days a week I don't feel like someone else is raising my child and I really think it's good for Dylan to be exposed to other people and to know that other people care for him besides mommy and daddy. We'll see if it pays off when the "attachment issues" arise around 7 mos as I hear they do.

The woman who watches Dylan is from Pakistan. Dylan comes home smelling like curry on Tuesdays and Thursdays (hence those are two of his bath nights). We don't mind, we think it's fun.

I've been thinking a lot about my new "normal" and my new identity. The "mom" title didn't really hit me until I was away from Dylan but was identified as a mom. Like when I went to the gym - most of the women there are not moms (at least as I perceive them) and so it kinda hit me that I was different then. It also hit me at work - thinking of myself or referring to myself as a "working mom." I definitely feel more like working mom than a stay at home mom. Mostly because I'm still working every day. And some days when I'm teleworking it takes the whole day for me to get my 2 hours in so I'm thinking about work most of the week. But have I gotten to do some stay at home mom things like stroller walks around the mall on a weekday with my friends who are also moms, walks around the neighborhood (you meet so many people that way!), and having time to read to and play with Dylan. And usually I'm able to log off from work around 2 or 3 and so I have the rest of the afternoon free of work.

I had someone a few weeks ago say to me "oh, so you're only working part-time, you must get a lot done at home." Most of you know the obsurdity of this statement and in fact I do not get much more done in a week's time than I did when working full time without a child. But I do get to be outside more and I do get a little project here and there done that I didn't when I was working full time. Although I get less done on the computer, which is probably a good thing, since if I had something to do on the computer, I did it at work but I don't have time to do that at work anymore.

Oh, and for those of you who know about my OCB re: my clothes list. It's gone! I am no longer keeping a record of what I wear each week! I figured that if I'm only working 2 days per week it shouldn't be that hard not to wear the same thing more than once in a three week period so I don't need to keep track anymore. I also decided that I'm going to dress up more for work. No more khakis or too-casual skirts for me.

Gymini

Dylan and his new toy that (Great) Aunt Kathy bought him and gave to him at the sip and see.

Heard at the sip and see....

"He looks like Martin, but with your chin."
"He looks like you when you were a baby."
"Is his hair a little red?"

I heard these multiple times this weekend. I love how people say he looks like both of us. And yes, in certain light Dylan's hair does look a little red. I had red hair as a baby for a while and my grandfather had red hair so maybe that's where he gets it from.

Dylan meets mommy's friends

Got to see Jen L and Melissa S and their daughters (Brenna L and Caelen and Maia S) last weekend when I was home. (Yes, I know people with girls. Actually most of my commenters have girls. It's just everyone else that's having boys.) Dylan was pretty sleepy when they were visiting so he's not in many of the pics. It was great seeing you ladies! (And Rich and Skip too!)

Dylan meets his great grandfather

My grandfather was in the hospital last time that we were home so last weekend was the first time that he got to meet Dylan. Since Grandpap had a stroke a few years ago, his talking isn't much different than Dylan's so they got along great. Grandpap really perked up when he was watching Dylan. It was great to see.

Sip and See

Here are some pictures from my sip and see last weekend. That's Dylan with his great-grandmothers and with my cousins Carol and Lorraine and with me.

Dylan "sitting up"

April fools!