Oh, we have....

In response to Catherine's comment on my last post, we have begun putting food in our hair as shown below.

Aftermath of first attempt at eating by himself with a spoon

Oh boy, she's got the camera again.

See what a mess I can make!

Wait, one more thing, let me tell you....

Oh no you don't....no more pictures or I'll start crying...

What have I done....

Haircut by Mommy

I decided that after Dylan's first haircut I would cut his hair to save money. Well, I know why we pay professionals to do these things. Dylan's hair came out pretty choppy and uneven. The pictures do not do justice to the horrible job I did. There's a big chuck of hair completely missing above his left ear. I'm not upset about it though. But I am considering taking him to Hair Cuttery next time. Not so much because of the way it looks but because of how hard it was for me to get him to be still long enough to do it. I actually had to finish the one side another day.

Drive down Skyline Drive

A few weekends ago we actually had a free Saturday and we were going to go to Richmond. Dylan was sick with a fever so we didn't go (but we did get to go Richmond last weekend, pics coming soon) but instead we took a drive down Skyline Drive. It was actually a good activity to do with Dylan when he was sick. He slept in the car on the way there and the way back and he sat still for a number of hours, which he would never do at home even when he' sick but which I think he needs to do to rest up and get better.

I think I got some great pics with the new camera but they don't do the scenes justice. It was a clear cold day. We did about 30 miles of the Drive. Maybe we'll do some more this and actually get out an hike then. Martin and I love mountains.

As you can tell from the last picture, Dylan wasn't feeling well - we didn't even get him out of the car. That's a neat picture where you can see the mountains through the sun visor but not out the rest of the window.

A new word and a new sign

Yesterday I figured out that Dylan has a word for cheese. It sounds a little like his word for shoes. Dylan went to the refridgerator as I was getting something out and grabbed the cheese and said "jeezzz." He would eat cheese all day if we let him.

The three of us went for a walk yesterday and heard some birds chirping. Dylan tapped his pointer finger to his thumb which is close to the sign for bird (you're supposed to do it right by your mouth). So that counts.

Still, the word that comes out of Dylan's mouth the most is "car." Followed closely by "bussssss."

Hanging out at home

Just some fun pics...

Friends' visit

Nancy and her husband and three kids came from the other side of the beltway to visit us in January. We try to get together every 2 or 3 months but it always ends up being a longer time between visits than we like. I was amazed at Nancy's stories of venturing out of the house by herself with 3 kids. I guess when you ease into it (1, then 2, then 3 kids) it's not as overwhelming but I just think of the production it is to get me and Dylan out of the house just to go get the oil changed in the car (our plans for today) and I have a hard time imagining how I could do that will two more kids.

It's fun now that Dylan can actually play with other kids so he has fun too when we hang out with our friends who have kids. And Nancy's girls had a good time too. I don't think they wanted to leave. And Amelie suspiciously left her (play) pink cell phone here. I think she wanted to make sure she would see Dylan again...tricky girls...:)

Today we got a wonderful picture in the mail from Amelie. Thank you!! Dylan likes it a lot!

Snow

Here's pictures from the one (and looking to be only) snow fall we had this year. So we only got one use out of the snow pants. Dylan seemed to like the snow. But he likes being outside no matter what, regardless of temperature.

New Word

Dylan started saying "bus" yesterday. We're trying to teach him the difference between bus and truck and car car.

Dylan's favorite things

You already know about the balloon and shoes so now I'm going to tell you about cars and ducks. Dylan can say "car car" now and he loves looking out the window of the house or the car and pointing out the cars. He also points out the cars when we go for a walk. And his current favorite toy is this set of stacking cars that my MIL bought Dylan for Christmas. These cars are great. They are all different colors and they each have a number on them and most importantly they don't make their own noise!

Dylan has 3 rubber duckies that he plays with in and out of the bath. He can say "ducks" too although sometime it comes out like "dutch" and sometimes we think he is saying "you're dutch" to which we reply, "no, you're dutch." (This is a Z family joke so sorry if you don't get it.) Dylan points out all the ducks in his books and on his toothbrush.

I already told you how much Dylan is into his Daddy but just this last week he's gotten more into Daddy. Yesterday he was looking out the window for Martin to come but it was only 9:30 in the morning. Then when he woke up from his nap, he heard water running and it knew it wasn't me so he asked if daddy was in the bathroom by saying "da?" Unfortunately it was just the upstairs neighbor flushing her toilet. This morning he cried when Martin left for work and one morning last week Martin dropped him off at day care and he cried then too even though he never cries when I leave him. Then, something really cute happened last night and this morning - Martin kissed me while I was holding Dylan. Martin kissed Dylan too. But instead of Dylan kissing Daddy back - he kissed me! I think he just wanted to be like Daddy but I got the kiss! :)

Attached to the balloon

The morning after Charlie's birthday party, Dylan went right for the balloon when he woke up. He wouldn't even let go to eat breakfast.

More pics from our social weekend last month

The same weekend as Charlie's birthday party, I also went to a baby shower for my friend Laura B. and a baptism lunch for our friends' baby.

My friend Jan and I showed up to the shower wearing the exact same outfit! Thankfully we are both secure enough that neither of us had to go home and change.

Here's Laura and her 3 sisters-in law and her MIL. Laura had a baby girl on February 19th.

Here's my cute husband and my cute son at the baptism party.

Here are the parents of the baby who was baptized - Russ (center) and Patricia. We hang out with them often and play Wi.

This is Richie. His baptism party was fun - we ate all Peruvian food and half of the conversations going on where in Spanish.

Leap Day Weekend

This was the most fun Leap Day Weekend that I remember (out of the 7 that I've been around for). Friday we went to Panera and I got the you-pick-two meal. I got a sandwich and a chicken cesaer salad, with a ton of chicken for a half salad. Since I already had meat on my sandwich, I tried giving Dylan the chicken off of my salad. He ate ALL of it. I was so surprised. I'm so thrilled too. Maybe he just doesn't like warm food (that would be a blessing if he didn't). Seemed like he was still hungry when we got home - he went to the fridge and pointed at the cereal bowl in the fridge with his leftover oatmeal in it. (We just tried that morning to give him instant adult oatmeal instead of the baby stuff.) So I took it out and started feeding him the cold oatmeal and he ate ALL of it. Maybe he was just that hungry that he would eat cold oatmeal or maybe he really likes it cold. I'll keep you posted.

Between Panera and home we stopped at the grocery store. As soon as we walked into the store Dylan pointed to all the balloons. I think he spotted each one in the whole store.

Yesterday, we went to the national geographic museum to see the frog exhibit. Apparently that was a popular leap day weekend activity since there were a ton of people there. We all had fun. I liked the poisonous blue frogs and Dylan liked see how far he could "jump." Martin liked the big bullfrogs.

Today we had some friends over for lunch - the husband/father was one of Martin's former roommates and I hung out with the wife/mom at my breastfeeding support group since their son is 6 days younger than Dylan.

In preparation for our friends coming over, we decided to vacuum yesterday. We only do this when people come over sadly so it had been about 6 weeks, I'm not too proud to admit. We've had this vacuum since we got married and we're too fond of it. Every time Martin uses it, I think because of the angle he pushes it, it comes apart (part of the easy release filter). Well, we went to vacuum yesterday and the thing started spewing dust everywhere. Turns out I think we accidently threw out the filter when we were cleaning it out. I figured instead of trying to find the right filter for the thing and spending $20-$30 on a new filter, we'd just get a new vacuum. I did a little bit of research online and found one at BB&B. Martin went out and got it and used our 20% off coupon. It was a relatively painless process surprisingly. And the new Hoover works great. It feels like it's pulling you along.

So how did you spend your leap day weekend?

Charlie's birthday

Here are pictures of the birthday boy. There were lots of boys at Charlie's party and they all wore red! The adults had a great time too. The theme of the party was Curious George.

Dylan and balloons

Here are pictures from our godson's 3rd birthday party last month. This is where we realized Dylan's fascination with baloons.