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.

Steven and Dylan playing together

These videos were from Christmas. Not much to see but these were the videos we got. I'm so glad we got a new camera. The new videos are so much better.

Adventures in eating

I think Dylan might be going through another growth spurt. He's been eating a lot the last two days. And he ate meat that wasn't pureed! That was exciting.

He also seems to want to feed himself. I let him the other night. He wouldn't eat and he kept screaming and I couldn't figure out what was up and then I realized that he wanted to use the spoon himself. I mixed his pureed meat with pureed veggies and that made a good consistency for him to scoop with his spoon. He took about 3 bits like that. Then I think he got frustrated and wanted it to go faster so he tried scooping it out with his hands. Then he got annoyed it seemed that his hands were sticky. I fed him the rest but I was very happy he is starting to make progress in this area.

I might have to have a talk with Bushra about Dylan's eating there though. When she thinks he doesn't eat enough she loads him up on milk, sometimes 16 oz in the 8 hours that he's there. And she's still giving it to him in a bottle. I told her to start weening him from the bottle but I don't know how much success she's had with this. I'm going to tell her this coming week is the last week for the bottle. And then she gave him peanut butter on bread this week...I guess he's not allergic! The weird thing is she made sure to ask me before she gave him eggs but she never asked about the peanut butter. I never told her not to though either. And I've seen peanut butter bread as a suggestion on at least 2 websites for 12-18 month-olds' menu so I guess it's not a big deal. Dylan must have drank a lot of milk yesterday...I can't get him to drink any today. Get him to drink more is probably my only sort of issue right now with his eating.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon...I know i've really be slackin there.

Life is good and then you get sick

About a week and a half - two weeks ago, I was thinking how much I was loving life. I still am in general but nothing like illness to put a damper on that. Let me explain in more detail....First, I've noticed how Dylan's care has become a lot easier in the last say 3 months. He's doing more for himself (like eating) and sleeping better (more napping) and have I mentioned I don't have to pump anymore?! Dylan is also so much fun these days - communicating more, making us laugh more with silly expressions and "comments." He always wants to go outside despite the bitter cold and so he's always talking about his "joooz" or shoes. And he is continually asking us to sing Itsy Bitzy Spider and pointing out the balloons in the store when we go out.

I have also been feeling like I was keeping busy with things I liked to do as well as getting some of those things that I didn't like to do done. I felt like I've had more time to relax as well as spend some quality time with God which has been missing for a while. I just felt like things were going really well too.

And I still do with the one little damper of having all of us sick. For Martin and I it hasn't even been that bad - just congestion. Dylan got an ear infection and had a really high fever last week but he's on an antibiodic now and seems to be getting better, and seems to me to be in better health than he has for a couple months. My frustration is just with having to cancel all my appointments because I don't want to get other people and their kids sick. In that respect I am so sick of winter but maybe that's why I have more time now...hmmmm. I have literally rescheduled this one financial counceling appointment 3 times because either she was sick or we were sick. And I know that a lot of you, my friends, are going through this too, especially you will little petri dishes (i.e., kids) at home. Part of me is like, I don't care, we live in community, we can't isolate ourselves for 3 months (for example, not go to church afraid our kid will get sick in the nursery), so what if we get sick, that's life. And you can really never know exactly where the illness came from. But then of course you don't want to get other parents mad at you and you want to at least try to prevent what you can. I guess this is just my end-of-winter rant. Hopefully spring will be here soon and this won't be such an issue.

Despite having to cancel our dinner reservations and babysitter, Martin and I did have a nice Valentines Day. We ordered in Chinese and ate it by candlelight after Dylan went to bed. I know we weren't the only ones because the take-out place was uber-busy that night. We got Dylan helium balloons for Valentines Day - you should have seen his face when I walked in the door with those! Wow, his smile was priceless.

One good thing about the current economy...

our property taxes (finally) went down....so our mortgage payment will be $100 less this year and we got a $175 rebate check from our escrow since they had too much of our money. That's almost as good as the $1500 we're getting back from Uncle Sam. I don't think we'll be helping out the economy too much though. One, we're cheap, and two we're about $4000 behind a savings goal that we set for ourselves so all that money will be going into savings.

So what are your plans with your tax rebate? Spend, save, pay off debt, or other?

Potty!

I taught Dylan the sign for Potty (toilet). So now instead of just stopping, staring, and grunting, he also makes a fist with his hand and sticks it in the air when he's pooping. I'm hoping this will help with potty training down the road.

I'm amazed that I only have to do the sign 2 or 3 times and Dylan gets it. Craziness!

More words every day...

Dylan seems to be learning new words every day. He now says car and I think he is saying truck and duck too (and least I hope so...:) And he can do the sign for sleep! In context! It's so fun to watch him learn so quickly!

On the charts

Dylan had his 15-month doctors appointment today. He weighed in at 20 lbs. 6.6 oz!!! That was the 5th percentile so he is now "on the chart" for his weight. For the other measurements he went down slightly in the percentages for height and head size but I don't think the nurse got good measurements because Dylan was so wiggly. His recorded height was 29 and 3/4 inches but I think he's talker than that.



The doctor said Dylan is doing great development wise. So a good report all around. When the doctor asked me if Dylan is saying any words, I realized that a lot more count than what I was counting. Plus, the signs count as additional words. And he just recently started saying 2 or 3 more words. [A few weeks ago, I had read something about how many words 12 month olds were suppose to have and I thought Dylan was behind because I only thought he had 2 or 3 words at 14 months. But I think he's right on now.] Here's a run down of Dylan's words:



Da - for Daddy. He also does the sign for Daddy...about 20 times a day in the form of a question, like he's asking "where's daddy?"



Uh-oh - but for this one he only repeats if we say it.

[more] - sign

[milk] - sign

[all done] - sign

[eat] - sign

[bye-bye] - sign

shoes - pronounced "juoos", he has also done the sign for this once or twice, this is a new one

balloon - pronounced "oon", this is a new one

ma ma - only when he's upset



itsy-bitsy - pronounced "ispa, sispa," this is relatively new ever since I started singing the itsy-bitsy spider to him, he does some of the hand motions for it too, actually anytime I start singing anything he does this.



So I guess he has about 10 words.



I am still nursing Dylan about twice a day, although I'm going to try to get that down to once a day and then quit all together next month. I've been still nursing because it's the easiest way to get Dylan to calm down for sleep and because I was concerned he wasn't getting enough liquids from the sippy cups. I'm not concerned about the liquids anymore, I think he is getting more now. So now it's just getting him to sleep without nursing. I think what spurred me on to do this was Martin putting Dylan in my lap yesterday while they were playing and Dylan wanting to nurse then. I want him to be able to sit in my lap without thinking about nursing.



As far as other eating goes, Dylan eats a lot of fruits and dairy which is all table food. He's still eating baby cereal and purreed meat and veggies but the doctor didn't seem to think that was an issue. I just can't get him to eat "adult" meat, veggies, and oatmeal. He spits them out.



He's still using a bottle at day care although I've asked Bushra to try to get him to take his milk in a sippy cup. Hopefully in the next two weeks he'll be done with the bottle.



That's about it as far as Dylan's update. Oh, the car seats...we get to turn them around now! We will definitely turn around the one in the Civic that Dylan rarely rides in - the cheaper Graco seat, which is actually leaning the way it is in now and is practically in the front the seat, it's so big. But I recently have been hearing that it's safer for the kids to be rear-facing even past 20 lbs and one year so I think I'll keep the Britax that we have in the Maxima rear-facing until either Dylan or I can't stand it anymore.

Fun pictures

These are the first pictures from our new camera. I have a ton more to download.

This is Dylan in his Steeler gear, in case you couldn't tell.


Dylan has been climbing into the chairs at the dining room table and sitting in them recently. It's really cute. He usually eats before we do so when we eat he still comes to the table and sits in the big chairs and watches us eat...and tries to climb on the table and signs that he wants food but when we give it to him he spits it out. Here he is eating a snack of Cheerios.

The girls and their boys

If you're happy and you know it, touch your ear.


Now, mommies, hold your boys hands down.

The flash seems to have the same effect on Dylan and me.

Dylan and Steven

Here are pictures from our visit to my sister's house last month. It was fun to see Dylan and his cousin play together.

Christmas at the Beach

Our old camera came through one last time for us with these amazing beach pictures of Dylan on Christmas day.



Dylan was much less afraid of the beach this time. He even braved the water with his feet.

Trip to Daytona pictures

The day after Karl's wedding we drove to Daytona and only made 3 stops. We left at 7:30am and got to Martin's parents house at 9pm. One of the stops was to the Georgia Pig. Making this stop is a tradition of Martin's family. Martin says its the best BBQ ever. I thought it was okay. The place is crazy though - the parking lot isn't paved and the place is basically a shack. You'd never find it if you didn't know where it was even though it's very close to the highway. And for some strange reason you couldn't take pictures inside so here is a picture of Martin outside on the porch. He was very happy after eating lots of meat.

Here's us Christmas Eve at Martin's grandmother's church.
Christmas morning at Martin's parents house. The balloon was from Martin's grandmother's birthday almost two month earlier. Dylan found that more interesting than the wrapped presents. After we got them unwrapped he did get into his toys. Although he did go back to the balloon periodically over the stay.

Reading with Grandpa...
I think I'll just take a break and sit down for a while...

Growth Spurt

Dylan is definitely going through a growth spurt right now. He's eating a lot which is usual for Dylan and he's sleeping a lot - and at a regular time (10am to noon). And his 6-9 month clothes are starting not to fit. I got him on the scale and with clothes, a dirty diaper, and while holding 2 rubber ducks, he weighed 21 lbs. He's got two more weeks to be 20 lbs without a diaper.

Dylan has been so interested in food that he climbs up on the dining room chair and sits down and points to his Cheerios when he's hungry. Last night, while Martin and I were eating dinner (Dylan ate earlier since I got home late), Dylan climbs up in the chair next to Martin and starts doing the sign for more. We try giving him some of our food (rice, red pepper, broccoli, little bits of meat) but he usually spits it out. He is eating most fruits with his hands now. He like bananas and clementines a lot. And he eats bread and Cheerios and cheese by himself too. We're working on veggies. I think I need to steam them more to make them softer so he'll he them.

Dylan is very interactive with us. He comes over to us and if our feet are exposed he tickles them. He likes when we sing to him. He starts to dance. He makes fists with his hands and shakes them up and down. That's his dancing. I'll have to get a video of it. I'm still trying to figure out the new camera we got with our Christmas gift cards.