August 20th

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a person who remembers dates and plans by my calendar. It's a very useful gift/talent and creates great reference points for life. I think reference points are helpful in remembering where you've been and where you are going and helps one to reflect on the past and imagine the future.

Today is the 6th anniversary of me moving to Falls Church, VA. I have now been in DC twice as long as I was at Penn State! Pret-ty crazy.

Today is also Cara's birthday (she was my roommate when I moved here) and Patricia's birthday. Happy birthday ladies!

In honor of Patricia's birthday, I'm posting pictures of her 2 month old son when we went to visit him a while back. Russ the fifth was born the day before my birthday.

And then I found five dollars....

This is a line that my friend's husband's friend uses when he tells a story that ends up having no point to it....(right Laura B. - am I getting the story right?) I'm one of those people who is not a good story teller. I rarely come up with good concluding tag lines to my blog posts that are not all that interesting to begin with except to Dylan's grandparents who want to know the up-to-the minute happenings on Dylan.

But I have a story to tell that happened to me on Tuesday. My metro card wouldn't work as I tried to got through the turnstile at West Falls Church. I took my card to the station manager like the display on the turnstile told me to. In the meantime, I'm remembering the last time I was on metro which was the Thursday before we went on vacation. The train that I was on had to be offloaded after we had already sat at McPherson Square for 15 minutes. I had left work late (5:30) as it was and needed to get home to feed Dylan. I knew it would be forever before getting onto another train so I left the station. [This next part is a side story but it's a decent story so I'll tell it.] I then called a friend who I knew who worked in DC to see if he wanted to share a cab home - he would be going to West Falls Church too. But he was already home when I called. Then I remembered that my boss was working late and called him to see if he could give me a ride home. My boss lives in Gainsville (i.e., BFE to anyone who works downtown) but WFC is one the way, right off 66. He was working late because his wife was out of town and he didn't have the second passenger for HOV, which ends at 6:30pm. He agrees to give me a ride but says he won't be able to leave for another 15 minutes. I figure it's still my best shot and take the ride. I get along with my boss and I'd even consider him a friend but the situation is still a little weird and I was wondering what I we were going to talk about for the half hour ride. We go to his car which is parked in this garage that has a valet service. My boss is pretty friendly with the guys at the garage. As soon as we're in the car, my boss says, "yeah, they probably think I'm having an affair or something cause they know she's away." So what do you say to that? I just laughed and try to stop myself from wondering if he's actually thought about the idea or not. Then I got annoyed at him for referring to his wife as "she" before using her name. I know a lot of men to refer to their wives that way and it really bugs me. So I eventually get home uneventfully around 7:15. [End of side story, fast forward back to Tuesday when I'm at the metro station.] I hand my card to the station manager (who thankfully takes my card instead of this gal's to my side who has tried to hand him her card even though she knows I've been standing there longer - she practically reached across me the whole time I was waiting) and then as he's swiping my card on the outbound reader I tell him that my last time on metro was the day it was really bad. He says, "oh you should have told me." Uh, I just did. So I ended up getting charged for a ride even though I didn't ride metro home the Thursday before. Normally this would have totally irked me. I spend a lot of time trying to save a dollar here and a dollar there - just ask Martin. So having to pay an extra $2.60 for no reason should have really burned me up. But I said, it's probably more trouble than it's worth to get a refund and you know, metro needs the money. I'd probably be willing to make a donation to metro in that amount so I just forgot about. And then I found five dollars.....

But I really did....I was having lunch with this gal from Treasury and we are walking into sandwich shop and I feel something fly by me. I thought it was a napkin or something. Then a guy that's eating outside says "hey hey did you drop this?" to the gal I'm with and it turns out the thing that flew by me was a five dollar bill. She says no and then she and the guy determine it must belong the guy who was in front of me. So the gal I'm with hands me the five dollars since I'm closer to the guy in front and I ask him if it's his. He says no and tells me to keep it as does the gal I'm with. So then I found five dollars....and I netted a positive $2.40 for the day.

Dylan update

Sorry for the lapse in posting but we were on vacation in Maine. More on that later including pictures. Dylan did wonderfully :) on the trip. He's a great traveler and hiker. During the trip Dylan also got another tooth (left top front) and has since learn to eat Cheerios by himself! I'm so excited to be able to start figure foods now! Dylan really likes eating by himself. And he gets a kick out of walking while holding onto our hands too.

Dylan sleeping

Last night my dad commented that I'm always saying how great Dylan does at things like plane rides and long car rides and hikes - things that allow Mommy and Daddy to still get out and do things. Dylan rarely cries and he's really friendly (that fear of strangers and separation anxiety never really set in) and easy-going, not much bothers him. So one might think from reading my blog that we have the perfect kid....well, lest you start envying the E's too much, let me tell you that Dylan, at 9 months, still does not sleep through the night. For a while there, he was sleeping through the night maybe 3 times a week. But then he wasn't STTN at all and last week he got a cold and starting waking up twice(!) during the night. Last night he was back to his waking up once around 4am. I think he wakes up because he's hungry and I'm not sure there's much I can do because I think his stomach is just still too small. One thing I might try is waking him at 10pm before I go to sleep to feed him so that he might make it through the night. Although, being up for 20 minutes at 4am hasn't been much of a hardship on me so that's why I haven't complained about it or really tried to do anything about it. Dylan sleeps for 12 hours at night. I've actually had a harder time with his naps. He takes 2-3 HALF hour naps a day or one, one-hour nap. Sometimes I just have to keep him in his crib longer (for quiet time) so I can get some work done. He usually wakes up refreshed so I'm not sure there's much I can do about the naps. I'm open to suggestions.

When Dylan is sleeping, he's been sleeping in some funny poses. Here are a few of them:


Notice the knees tucked up under the bottom...

Dylan likes the corners and sides of his crib.

Exercise Mondays

Besides the walking/hiking that we do on the weekend, my exercise has been limited to Monday nights. I had been going to a light weights class here and there on Monday nights but the class starts at 5 and it's hard for Martin to get home in time for me to go. Then we started playing ultimate on Mondays so last week and the week before I got two good workouts there. Since ultimate is now over, last night I decided to venture back to spinning classes. I hadn't been in so long because it was too hard to do past like week 16 of pregnancy and then after Dylan was born, I kept saying that I had to take it easy at first and work up to it. Well, it's been 9 months, I don't think I can use the "i just had a baby" excuse for not being back in shape. Since I had been doing the ultimate I figured I could get spinning a try again. The instructor of the 6pm class on Mondays is my fav. It was just like old times, only there were new bikes! It felt so good. It was tough, granted, but it felt so good to really exercise hard for 45 minutes straight and sweat. It was a great stress relief and the sweating felt like cleansing. I think I'll try to go back after our vacation. But I'm torn because I really should be doing weights but I really like spinning and I'm motivated for that. Well, maybe I can add a Friday night or Sat morning weights class.

Oh, and our last ultimate game was great! I threw a score, catch a score, and blocked a pass. Probably the game of my life.

Leesylvania

Here's where I tried out my birthday present. This is a VA state park about 45 minutes away down 95. We were there on the 4th.

My Birthday Present

Dylan Update

Dylan had his 9 month checkup yesterday. He only had to get one shot so it was a good visit for him. Dylan officially fell off the weight curve. He weighed 15 lbs 13.8 oz at the doctors. And that was after I had just fed him too. Again, the doctor doesn't seemed concerned at all and he was really great about - i.e. he didn't assume we weren't feeding Dylan enough. He said that he knows that Dylan is growing well because his height and head circumference are increasing. So Dylan is getting the calories, but just burning them really quickly with how active he is. His height is 27 inches (10th percentile) and his head cir. is in the 55th percentile, up from 50 percentile at the last visit.

The doctor continued to say how strong Dylan is and actually seemed amused by him. I really like our doctor. He sees a ton of patients every day and he still makes us feel like ours is special to him. The doctor seemed to think we were feeding him all the right stuff.

Pictures from my 30th birthday party Part II

Laura and John B., Ted and Oliver (they go with Krista)

Krista, Henry, and Calvin. Krista made me an awesome chocolate/cherry cake.

Charlie H., our godson.
Dan, Jamie, (they go with Laura H.) Dylan, and Martin.
Me and Laura H.

Jack B. was also in attendence. It was such a fun party. Since everyone had kids the party started at 4pm and ended around 7pm. That just cracks me up. That's one way my life has changed since having kids. But in a lot of ways it hasn't, mostly since Dylan is such a good kid.

Christine and Dylan

Christine was good enough to come visit us before she moved to the west coast. Christine is a special friend even though she doesn't share a birthday with Dylan...(Dylan was due the day before her birthday - the Etner family picture day.)

New Outfit

Grandma Marna bought Dylan this outfit which is my new favorite outfit for him. Not sure why the pictures came out blurry.

Dylan's first trip to the ocean

Dylan was a little bit afraid of the ocean, which is probably a good thing. Not much else phases him. We joke that he's going to be a parachute tester. Today he did a face plant into the carpet and just kept rolling and got up all while smiling. On Friday he practically dove into the pool for a squeaky toy. After I picked him up out of the water he bats his eyes to get the water out, coughs up the water that got into this mouth all the while still going after the squeaky toy.

Pool time at Grandma's

Tomoka State Park

Tomaka State Park (FL) is in Ormond Beach (near Daytona) where Martin's parents live.
Here's the Tomoka Indian statue.

Martin and Dylan and Grandpa Rell checking out the Tomoka Creek.

Dylan and Martin on our hike through the park. The scenery is a lot different than our hikes at home. We loved it but not the mosquitos.

This is a very old tree. Some of the branches even grew into the ground. Originally people thought it was 2000 years old but now they figure it's only about 300 years old.

Darrell and Christa's Wedding

This was the wedding we went to in Florida last month.


This is me with the stunning Mother of the Groom, my friend Jan. Loved the dress!

Darrell and Christa are friends of ours from church, specifically the singles ministry.

This is Dylan with Kathryn, the sister of the groom, who was also his music teacher.

The boys with our friends Thomas and Jonathan.

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.