The Zoo

Three weeks ago, I got to do one of those fun SAHM things and meet up with my friend Linda and her son Erik for a trip to the zoo. We got there at 10am when all the fun things happen at the zoo, for instance, the baby elephant gets his bath! We had a great time - we saw the Pandas, merecats, little monkeys, sloth bears, and bald eagles. I got a bunch of pictures of the bald eagle because he was unusually close to the people and he was eating a mouse.

I had Dylan in the Bjorn which is good for the zoo because the kids can see alot better than in the stroller. However, I learned that I won't do the Bjorn if I go by myself. After Linda and Erik left, I hung out for a little longer and realized I had no way of going to the bathroom because I didn't have anywhere to put Dylan. So then a stroller would have been useful.

Fun Bath Time

I'm amazed at how much Dylan loves his bath. He likes to lie there in the water (which covers his ears) and chill and kick his legs. I think this helps him in the pool too. Hopefully he will learn to back float.

Hiking with Hank

...as in the billionaire Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson. As a civil servant (emphasis on servant) I haven't had much in the way of perks with my job. Good pay and job security aside, there are a number of bonus items that we bureaucrats miss out on. Things like company picnics, office Christmas parties, conventions in Vegas, etc. But I can complain no more. Last month, the very cool and down-to-earth Treasury Secretary invited all departmental office employees on a hike to Sugarloaf Mountain in MD. Being the bird watcher that Sec Paulson is, the hike started at 8am so those of us who wanted to partake of the hike had to work for it. We had a great time. The Secretary/Department even sprung for cold water after the hike, but we had to bring our own lunch. The Secretary made his rounds to every picnic table and was very approachable. Dylan was a big hit on the hike too. He got to shake the Secretary's hand. My office was well represented (3 out of 9 of us were there) and we think we had the oldest and youngest hikers (Dylan and my 70 and a half year old officemate). You can kinda see the Secretary in the second picture below - navy blue shirt. I miss a good photo op and I think the secret service guys got a little nervous with the cameras so that's the best I got. It was a really fun day - hot for the first of June. Afterwards, my friend Judy convinced us to go to the winery at the bottom of the mountain too. Good times.

I swear this is not the same picture from our last previous two hikes....

My Second Thirtieth Birthday

My birthday this year really did feel like my second thirtieth birthday. Yesterday Martin had a dinner party for me. He made chicken chieve and baked corn and green beans. And my friend Krista made the cake. The really fun part was the people that came were some of the ones that couldn't make my party last year. So it was literally 30th Part II. And there were still some folks who couldn't make it both years so there is still potential for 30th Part III next year - mark your calendar Nancy! And of course there was one special guest who made his first appearance this year. Dylan liked watching Mommy blow out the candles. We had a great party. 8 adults, a teenager, 3 preschoolers and 4 babies 8 months old and less.

My actually birthday was good too. I had fun taking Dylan to his swimming lesson. Our friends Laura and Jack are in the class too. Laura watched Dylan for a minute while I got to go in the hot tub. Then we went out to lunch at Panera. Then we went to the hospital where Dylan was born and I got to hold the day old baby of our friends Russ and Patricia. Martin took me out to dinner and then to DQ that night. I also heard from my parents and my brother and sister and my friends JenLa and Amy.

Here's the comparison

Birthday Eve

Today is my last day to be 30. In some ways, turning 31 is just as bad as turning 30. For instance, there are just as many case of age range category changes that occur when turning 31 as when turning 30: you know, 20-29, and 21-30 etc. When Martin and I went hiking a few weeks ago, we were asked to take a survey when we got off the trail. The age range on that survey was 21-30 so I still made it in that one. As of tomorrow I will be grouped with 40-year olds!!! I remember my parents turning 40. Also, you get more sympathy for turning 30 than 31 so it eases the pain a little more. Another sign of getting old was that I went to a wedding last weekend where I knew the parents better than I knew the bride and groom. Granted we still would have been invited if we hadn't known the parents but still. Speaking of weddings, since having a baby I realized that I now also identify more with the parents at the wedding. Instead of thinking, oh, that would be a nice thing to do at my wedding (since it has come and gone) or man, I wish we had done that, my thoughts now turn to thinking about Dylan's wedding. I get teary-eyed at the mom/groom dance even more than the daddy/daughter dance. Gosh, I'm getting soo old! Thankfully it has been and will continue to be a gradual process. And tomorrow is just another day in that journey.....

Sitting up

For the official record, here are the pictures and video of Dylan sitting up for real (as opposed to the last video I posted where he was just kinda doing it). Again, he's come so far in the month since these were taken. More soon.

My parents really think that Dylan looks like me when I was this age. Apparently we had the same hairdo too. Maybe I'll get a scanned picture and post it.

Mom, whatcha doing?

Peek a Boo

These are pictures from when Dylan first started pulling up. Since I'm so behind on my posting, at first when I saw these pics today, I'm like, what's the big deal? Dylan is doing so much more now but at the time we thought this was a big deal. This was about the time we moved Dylan into his own room. It has gone well. He has to cry a little longer at night when he wakes up to get our attention but he'll live. We don't need a monitor, we just sleep with both doors open so we can hear him. I missed him at first. He did fine. Didn't notice the difference.

Doesn't he look so proud of himself?

Dylan's first time in the pool

Was Memorial Day weekend too - in our condo association's pool. Dylan's been in the pool about 3 or 4 other times since. After get acclimated to his surroundings, Dylan seems to really enjoy the water. He kicks his legs and likes to splash. Friday we start swimming lessons at one of the county pools!

Hiking at Bull Run

This was our Memorial Day Hike - the fifth hike from the 60 hikes within 60 miles book. Bull Run is in Virginia off of I-66 near Haymarket. This was what I considered our first real hike. We did about 6 miles and we stopped for lunch at the peak of the mountain. We even fed Dylan his cereal and veggies there.

First Teeth Brushing

Okay, so is this how I do it?
This isn't so bad..
Uh, Dylan, wrong end.
You expect me to know these things?

Dylan and Daddy

Dylan update

Dylan is pulling himself up already. He started doing that like the day after he started crawling, I swear. We lower the crib again. Now I can't reach the bottom without getting up on my tip toes and bending a lot. He's so excited about all that he can do now, it's really hard to get him to sleep. The little monkey keeps climbing up his crib. He can still pull himself up even though we lowered the crib more. We probably could have left it where it was - the top rail was at his shoulders so I really don't see how he could go over the top, but you never know.

Dylan tried pears today and liked them. So now we add fruit to his meals.

Dylan and Grandma

Yo grams, give me five.

Milestones

Lots of milestones this week/today.

• Dylan is officially "on the move." He is crawling all around and can even go from crawling to sitting.


• Our beloved 1999 Honda Civic reached it's 100,000 mile mark yesterday. I remember when this used to be a huge deal for cars. That was before we started driving Japanese cars...:) I bought the Silver Bullet (or V for short) on Christmas Eve Eve 2000. Hopefully she'll last us another 100,000 miles.


• Some of you may know that June 10th is a significant day in my life for two reasons, one good, one bad. June 10th, 1983 was the day me, my mom, my brother, and my sister were in a car accident and was when I got the scar on my eyebrow. I remember it clearly because the paramedic asked me what day it was. The paramedic was expecting me to say "Friday" or maybe nothing at all. In my almost-7-year-old maturity, I said "Friday, June 10th, 1983." They figured I was fine after that point. I was in the front seat (gasp!) without a seatbeat (gasp!) much less a booster and my 4 year old sister and 2 and a half year old brother were in the backseat without car seats (gasp!) or seatbelts (gasp!). I think that's a felony today - some sort of child endangerment or something. The car flipped over and we all survived with nothing worse than a gash on the head. Amazing. God is so good. But that was the bad June 10th. The good June 10 was 1994, the day I graduated from high school.


• June 11th, besides being Laura B.'s birthday and Rachel and Andrew's anniversary, was the day that my parents went on their first (blind) date. That was 1966 (right Mom?).


• This is my 200th post! Got you beat Nancy! :) (Of course, you've probably only been blogging half the time I have.) Thanks for the idea!

Dylan and Mommy

If you can't tell, I'm having a lot of fun with Dylan these days. He is so cute and such a joy to be around. We have so much fun together. I probably said the same thing about Martin 4 years ago when I was falling in love with him. Like father, like son. Life is really good these days.

First Veggies

These pics were taken on May 21st. We started with squash. Since then Dylan has had sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, and avacado. He doesn't like the green stuff for some reason, even the avacado. We got him to at least tolerate the green beans. Wednesday is the next new food day. I think we'll try pears.



I'm not so sure about this...what are you two trying to pull here?

Brandi's wedding

Brandi is a friend of mine from college. She was in SCA (Student Christian Association) with me and was instrumental is my coming to faith in Christ. Brandi has been working in east Asia for the past 3 years. It was a joy to see her get married. The wedding was in central PA so it was a day trip for us. Dylan did great. Although he had a little accident and I forgot to bring a change of clothes (other than another onesie) so Dylan was dressed all in white like the bride for most of the reception:

By the way, the two weddings that we went to in May were GREAT about childcare. Both offered childcare during the ceremony and reception. Although we do like to keep Dylan with us for most of the reception to show him off, it was nice to be able to take him to the nannies while we ate. We'll see how it goes at the other 3 weddings we are going to this year. (We were invited to another 3 weddings so don't think we go to every wedding we are invited to.)

Dylan with his cousins

Hiking in NC off Skyline Drive -

Nashville

Now, that it's June, I can start posting pictures from May...

Downtown Nashville

Me and Kelly.
Kelly and John and us at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Martin and Dylan before Jared and Dorrie's wedding.

High chair

As you can see below, we didn't even have Dylan's high chair put together when we started solids. We put it together shortly after that and it was then much easier to feed him. And he liked it alot. Thanks to Great-grandmas S. and Z. for the high chair! It's really awesome. The music it makes is not cheesy or annoying like most kids toys. Mommy likes to dance to the jungle groove! Dylan thinks that's funny. The toy on the tray is for when you are preparing the food - keeps the child occupied. You take it off when you are ready to feed him.