Dylan's first ride in an airplane

This was from our trip to Florida. Dylan was an angel on the plane!

Waving and New Tooth

Dylan has been moving his hand up and down which looks like a wave but he does it at random times so I'm not sure he gets what a wave is but he's doing it. Bushra told me today that he is starting to clap his hands too. Dylan played with bubbles at Bushra's today. We'll have to get some because it sounds like he really liked it.

Dylan has a new tooth, his third. Now you would think that after getting his bottom two teeth that the next ones to come in would be his top front teeth. Well, Dylan had to be different. His new tooth is the one next to the would-be middle tooth on his left side. I hope he still gets his two front teeth.

Swimming Lessons

Martin was able to come to the first swimming lesson since that was the day we left for Florida. Dylan continues to do really well in the pool. He kicks and jumps (i.e. falls) in and doesn't mind when he goes under all the way. That's Dylan's buddy Jack and his dad John in the upper picture.

Update - Week 38

This was the title of my last pregnancy post. Dylan was born at 38 weeks. He has just now entered his 38th week of life outside the womb. So he's been out in the world longer than he was inside me now....:)

Dylan is also no longer a vegetarian. He ate pureed beef for the first time on Sunday. He seemed to like it. He didn't scarf it down like he does sweet pototoes or pears but he was okay with it. Oh, and I'd liked to retract a statement I made on my blog previously. I said that we had enough bibs so we didn't need anymore. Well, now all our bibs have orange or grey (from the iron supplement) stains on them and being that we use two a day, we go through our 15 or so bibs sometimes before I get around to washing them. So we can always use more bibs.

Dylan weighs about 17 lbs now. I will have the official number next Friday when we go to the pediatrian. Dylan has been wearing 3-6 month clothes for about 5 months now. I decided it was time to retire the 3-6 month sleepers because they were getting a little small. So now he's going to move into the 6-9 month sleepers but the other 6-9 month clothes are mostly still too big for him. Maybe he just long legs. Or maybe it's the cloth diaper.

That's about all that's new with Dylan. He's still crawling and pulling up a lot and we are still having a ton of fun with him.

Happy House Anniversary!

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of us closing on our house. We got a card from our realtor. I'm liking our condo a lot more these days (since we got the storage unit). More house would mean more cleaning, something I don't really do much of to begin with and more things for Dylan to get into - like stairs - and more things to buy - like furniture, baby gates, baby monitor, etc. Amist all the house lust I struggle with and the frustration of having only 20% of our mortgage payment actually going towards paying off our over $200K in mortage debt, God reminds me of the blessing of our home,.....our first home,.........Dylan's first home.

Here's a photo of us with our realtor 3 years ago:

Dylan and Tyson

Here's some pictures from our (mine and Dylan's) visit with Angie and her son Tyson (they came over to swim). Angie's husband and Martin were college roommates and he was in our wedding. Martin was a little weirded out by me hanging out with Albert's wife....it was like friends-in-law. But why should it be strange that two guys who got along well married two women who get along well. Hopefully Tyson and Dylan will get along well too. Tyson is two months older than Dylan.

Hiking on Father's Day Weekend

This was Dylan's (and Mommy's) first time on the AT. We hiked from Route 40 in MD to this site...the first Washington Monument (were standing on it). It was about a 7 mile hike round trip. My motivation for finishing the hike was a trip to the outlets in Hagerstown afterwards. We were looking for hiking boots (my birthday present from Martin and Dylan). We didn't find any but we did find a jacket that I had been wanting to buy since last fall at the LLBean outlet. That was my belated anniversary present. We got it on sale and I really like it. Haven't had a chance to wear it yet.

Why we lowered the crib....

Can you tell how I'm spending my 4th?

We went hiking today which was a ton of fun and we wore Dylan out so he was asleep by 7:30pm. No fireworks this year, at least none that aren't on TV. Is the Capitol 4th show always this cheesy? Tony Danza....c'mon. "Hold me closer...Tony Danza." Going to bed early since I have to work in the office tomorrow.

Bath time video added

See the bath time post below for a video I just added.

Dylan's favorite passtime - pulling up

I couldn't get Dylan to pulling up all the way for the video camera but he can get all the way to a standing position. He can also get down by kneeling and then putting his hands on the floor.

New, and not so new foods

I tried yogurt with Dylan yesterday. He likes it, he really likes it. I wasn't too surprised though. But, he also ate green beans! And today, I got him to eat Gerber bananas. Maybe he's not that picky afterall. I'll try the peas and avacado again soon. And I think mashed potatoes will be his next new food. Then some pureed meat. I can't get Dylan too interested in finger food. He doesn't seem to know what to do with it once it's in his mouth. He's doing okay with the sippy cup although sometimes he gets too much water and chokes on it. Maybe he'll get it before he starts walking, which could be right around the corner.

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.