Teeth

Dylan is now 9 months old and is finally starting to get his first teeth. After a few days of a runny nose and not so good sleep, I was happy to see the reason why. He has one that has cut through on the bottom with the one next to it to come through any day now. Once the tooth came through the gums, Dylan seemed to be feeling a little better for a few days. But then this last Thursday he had a temp of 103, was really whiney and fussy all day, and he woke up with his eyes so crusty he couldn't even open one of them. So I took him into the doctor and he has an ear infection and pink eye. So much fun, let me tell you. He has been on antibiotics for a few days now and is doing much better. We are all a little sleep deprived still but his fever has gone down. I am hoping this is a one time thing with his teeth and that he doesn't get this sick with each one that he gets. Here is a little video to show you what our house has been like the last few days. Hopefully we are at the end of it, it is so sad!

Good Times

We had a fun surprise last Friday night. One of my best friends and roommates from college Jenny came into town with her husband Bryan and sweet little newborn Kimball. They are looking to possibly move here with his job, so they came to check out Colorado. It was a quick trip for them and they had a lot to accomplish while they were here, but they were so sweet to make some time for us and go to dinner. We were able to catch up while we chowed on burgers, fries, and onion rings at Cheeburger Cheeburger. It is always so fun to get together with good friends! Jenny and I had a lot of really fun times together back in college and I miss seeing her more often. She is one of those friends that I knew I would always keep in touch with. Of course we are pulling for them to move here, we even have a house picked out for them right next door!! :) Good luck in your decision making guys!

I FINALLY GAVE IN. . .

Here he is before. . .


And here is the final product. . .

Paul has been begging me for months to buzz Dylan's head. I could never understand why he wanted to do it so bad because there was hardly any hair there to begin with. The little bit that he had was really fine and would stand pretty close to straight up. People would always make comments to me about how much they loved his hair, and that it totally fit in with today's syle of 'the messy do'. You know the style where guys put a bunch of gel in their hair to make it stand up, and then just run their fingers through it for some sort of shape. Well, Dylan's hair did that naturally (sort-of. . .at least I like to think it did :) So I finally gave in to Paul because Dylan was starting to sport the beginnings of a baby mullet in the back, and I had already cut the top twice because it gets long and looks funny standing straight up. I figured we might as well do it and hopefully it will grow back in a little thicker and more even. So Friday night we get out the clippers and I am holding Dylan while Paul starts to go to town. He makes 1 or 2 passes and I see the handfuls of hair fall in the bathtub and I start to friek out. I knew he was going to lose a little hair, but I wasn't prepared for the amounts I saw falling. I gave permission for a haircut, but not a haircut with the #1 setting on the clippers (that is the shortest length possible)! But of course at that point it was too late to go back, so he had to finish what he started. Now Dylan looks like a little tennis ball with nothing but fuzz all over his head. Paul tricked me and now my cute little boy looks like he is ready to enter the military. All I have to say is hopefully it grows back fast. . .for Paul's sake!

New Tricks

It is so fun to watch Dylan grow and to get so much joy out of the tiny little things he learns each day. He hit a couple of big milestones over the past few weeks. First of all. . . .he is crawling!! He doesn't seem to venture off too far yet. He gets part way across the room and then sits back up to think about whether he wants the toy bad enough to crawl the rest of the way. He usually gets distracted by something else and stays where he is, unless it is a ball. He is definitely a true boy and loves any little ball lately that he can pick up and throw. He throws it, crawls over to pick it up and throws it again. He will repeat this little game FOREVER smiling and laughing the entire time.

The other thing he has learned over the past few weeks is how to clap! I know it seems like such a small, insignificant thing but I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see him do it. He is just sooooo cute when he sits there and claps his little hands. He always has such a huge smile on his face while he does it too. That is definitely one of the things he can do that cheers me up instantly no matter what kind of mood I am in. I am learning that it is all the small things that your kids do that melt your heart and make motherhood so much fun. I love it!!

Play Date

I got together with two friends the other day from our old ward. They both have little girls about the same age as Dylan. It was so funny to watch them all interact together. They are at that stage where they want to 'check each other out' and try to figure out who this new little person is. They tugged on each others clothes, patted and rubbed each others heads and grabbed at each others toys. I wanted to get a picture before we left, so we lined them all up with Dylan in the middle. I couldn't even snap a quick shot before he turned to little Anna next to him and started pushing her until she fell over and started crying. So we sat her up and tried again, but again he pushed her over and made her cry even harder. We finally moved him to the other end so he wasn't next to her, and put him far enough away so that he couldn't do any more damage. So these are the pictures we ended up with. I guess Dylan needs a lesson on how to play nice!

Shopping

Last Friday Dylan and I went shopping with my friend Whitney. With the weather changing and finally starting to get warm, Dylan was in need of some summer clothes. We had a great time, and Dylan was of course all kicked back in his stroller laughing and smiling at everyone we saw. He looked so funny, he was lounging back in the stroller with his leg kicked straight up in the air. How nice would that be to be pushed around in your own little lazy boy all day! He was definitely cozy and loving it. It was too cute to pass up the photo opportunity!

Good Friends

Our friends from Utah, Stasha and Doug came to visit us last week. They were on their way to New York where they will spend the summer. Doug has an internship there for the next 4 months. So the first stop on their drive was here at our house. They came Tuesday and spent the night with us, and then it was back on the road for them Wednesday morning. It was so fun to spend the evening catching up and remembering fun times from our college days. We LOVE to have people come and see us. Here is my official open invitation to anyone who wants to come visit. We will give you a warm place to sleep, good food to eat (depending on what you consider good :) and plenty of entertainment by Dylan. Doesn't it sound tempting??

Date Night

Paul and I finally took the plunge on Saturday night. We left Dylan home and we went out on a date all by ourselves! Except for a couple nights over Christmas when we had Grandmas, Aunts and Uncles around to watch him, this is the first night out alone we have had since he was born. I know that is totally sad, but I guess we are just pathetic first time parents that can't stand the thought of leaving our little baby home without us. I don't know what we were thinking all these months. . .we had the best time! Thanks to our awesome friends Whitney and Jake who came over to hang out with Dylan, we got to spend some time just the two of us again. It was so nice, we will for sure be doing more nights like these in the near future. We went and saw the movie 21 and loved it. There hasn't been a whole lot of movies out lately that we have even been remotely excited to see, but this was a good one. I know this picture has nothing to do with our date, but we didn't take any of us at the movies. So here is a cute one of Dylan from the other day.

Carrots anyone?

Dylan's high chair has a little 'snack tray' that is permanently fixed to it, and the big tray that goes over it that you can take on and off. I sometimes leave the removable tray off if he is just hanging out, but HARDLY EVER leave it off when he is actually eating. But of course I had it off the other day when I was feeding him a bowl of carrots. I turned my head for a second, and he reached out and grabbed the bowl. I guess I wasn't holding it very tight because he knocked it out of my hand and food everywhere. With the other tray on, he first of all probably wouldn't have been able to even reach the bowl, and second of all if he did the food would have only spilled on the tray and not all over him (and the chair, and the floor, and my pants). He thought he was pretty funny. . .

Girls Night

There is a great group of women in our ward here that I love, love, love to get together with. Once a month we have a girls night and we each take turns planning what we will do for the evening. We call it our 'Favorite Things' night. So whoever is in charge for the month chooses one of their favorite things that they like to do, and we all go do it together. So this month the girls in charge chose to go to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. . .yummy!! There was a group of about 23 of us (I think) that spent the evening eating, talking, and laughing a lot. It was so much fun! I love Paul and Dylan to death, but sometimes it is nice to get out and spend a little time with just the ladies!!

Random Pics from the Last Few Weeks

Sleepover!!

We just had our year warranty walk through on our house with the builder a few weeks ago and we had a couple little 'blemishes' on our wood floor that I wanted fixed. So last Friday we had our floor sanded down and refinished. The smell was really bad from it so they recommended that we go stay somewhere else for the night. We were nervous about staying with someone with Dylan in case he didn't sleep. He does fine at home in his crib, but you never know how he is going to do somewhere else. So we decided to call our good friends Jeff & Jessica. We figured they are like family to us and they would understand if Dylan happened to cry all night! They were nice enough to let us come and stay at their house for the night. We had fun spending time with them - since we moved we don't see them as often as we would like. Friday was their youngest son's 2nd birthday, so Jessica made us a yummy BBQ dinner along with cake and ice cream. Paul and Jeff of course had fun playing rough with the kids - it always seems to involve trying to hit each other with balls or pillows or anything else you can throw. (Jessica and I try to stay out of their way.) We had a great time together, and now our floors look like new again. We really appreciate having good friends that we can depend on when we need a favor. Thanks to Jeff, Jessica, and their kids for letting us come and sleepover!! (I forgot my camera so sadly no pictures. . .maybe next time)

Sock Obsession

For some strange reason Dylan has a little obsession with socks. I don't know what is so special about them but he loves them. He always reaches down and tries to pull his off, (he usually can't get it off all the way by himself so I have to help him) but then he grabs it and shoves it straight into his mouth. He looks like a little puppy dog with its toy or something. The other day I was sitting on the floor folding laundry, the pile of clothes were spread out in front of me and Dylan was sitting close by. I was busy folding and then looked over and he had grabbed some socks - there was one in each hand and another one in his mouth. He kept trying to stuff all three in his mouth at the same time. But once he would get a second or third one in, the first one would fall out. But he didn't give up. He kept doing it over and over. I was totally cracking up and he just kept looking at me like. . .What is so funny??

Tough day at the office!

Paul hardly ever travels for work (thanks goodness) but his company does have a convention once a year. This year it was in Los Angeles, so he spent part of this last week out there in meetings. The office manager for his office asked if I would go into their office for a couple of hours each day that they were gone to answer the phone, be there for deliveries, and get the mail. So Dylan and I spent some time helping out at Daddy's office this week.

FUTURE CEO!!!

Hello?......... Can I help you?

Friends at Last

I just started giving little toys to Dylan to splash around with in the bath a few weeks ago. He has finally gotten interested in playing with something other than his own toes. We have this little rubber ducky wearing a fireman uniform that I gave him, and it was hilarious to watch what he did with it. He didn't make any effort to grab it like he does other things, but would just sit and stare at it for a while without moving a muscle. Then his lower lip would start to quiver and tears were quick to follow. I'm not sure what it was about this duck that he didn't like, but I have never seen such a sad, scared little face. I am a mean mom because even though I knew that he hated this duck I kept putting it in front of him each night because I wanted to see his reaction. I even had to call Paul in from the other room to show him. It was so funny to watch! This went on for several days in a row. Then finally the other night I guess Dylan decided that the duck wasn't so bad after all and finally started to play with it. Whatever it was that was bothering him, he got over it. But not before Paul and I had a few laughs.

Doctor Appointment

We went for Dylan's 6 month well baby check yesterday. He was so cute sitting out in the waiting room. Paul sat him in the chair next to him all by himself. He just sat there squealing and laughing the whole time. He was loving all the attention he was getting from everyone else in the room and you could tell he was pretty proud of himself to be sitting there like a big boy. So they called his name and we went back with the nurse. She said to us 'I am sure you hear this all the time but he is so cute!!'. Of course we were such proud parents to be hearing that. As soon as we got into the exam room, we had a nice reality check. We set him down on the table to get him undressed to be weighed and he exploded. I am not sure what it was about that table, but there was something there he didn't like. He screamed the entire time the nurse was measuring him and she tried to listen to his heart/chest but I don't think she was too successful. After she left he finally settled down when we held him, but then did the same thing when the doctor came in. He cried worse just laying him on the table than he did when he got his shots! So our cute happy little man out in the waiting room was not such a good patient! Hopefully it will go better next time! Here are the 6 month stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz - 36th percentile for his age
Height: 27 1/4 inches - 72nd percentile
Head: 17 inches - 29th percentile
This picture isn't from yesterday, it was from a day last week when Dylan was sooo tired but would not go down for a nap. But this is about how he looked after we left our appointment - red eyes and really sad face!

Our Little Angel

Last Friday was Dylan's 'half birthday'. He is now 6 months old. I can't believe how fast time has passed, it seems like just yesterday I was pregnant. People always say that they never knew they could love someone as much as they love their kids and that it is a different kind of love that you don't experience in any other way. I never quite understood what they meant until I became a mom myself. The last 6 months with Dylan have brought so much love, happiness, and joy into our lives it is hard to put it into words. There is nothing sweeter than walking into the room and seeing his little face light up with a huge smile just because he is so happy to see you. It is so fun to watch him learn new things as he explores the world around him. He is sitting up pretty well now and is in that stage of picking up anything within his reach and putting it straight into his mouth. He loves to play with little toys and I think his favorite time of day is bath time! He is such a good baby, pretty happy and content most of the time. My days are always filled with lots and lots of smiles and giggles - being a mom is the best! It doesn't matter how tired or frustrated I feel at times, the second I see him smile my heart melts and for that moment in time the world seems perfect. I am so grateful I am able to stay home and take care of him. I would not want to be missing out on all the cute things he does all the time. I am trying to savor every moment of every day because I know that before I realize it he won't be a baby anymore. So right now I am loving each day with my sweet little baby boy. I love him so much I can hardly stand it! Life doesn't get much better than this does it?

Walk

I had a bunch of things on my 'to-do' list today that I needed to get done. But as I was eating lunch, the news was on and it said that the sun was shining and it was 61 degrees outside. So I thought I better put my other things aside and take advantage of the nice weather and get outside for a little walk. I got Dylan's coat on, put him in his stroller with his blanket and off we went. We got to the park at the end of the street, I stopped to take a picture of him and realized that even though he was bundled up his little hands, nose, and ears were so cold!! So needless to say we turned around and came right back home. I guess I will just have to keep dreaming of the days when it will be warm enough to spend more than 15 minutes outside!

Celebrating Love Day

We had a pretty uneventful Valentine's Day - on the actual day. I had asked Paul what he wanted me to cook for him that night, and I was so excited to make him a nice dinner and just spend the evening together. But I ended up getting sick and I was not feeling like cooking, or doing anything else for that matter. My poor husband had to come home to me laying on the couch about ready to fall asleep and of course no dinner to eat. So we settled for a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches, watched a little TV, and crashed. Fortunately we had some fun plans for the next night to celebrate the holiday. We got together with a group of friends from our ward for a catered dinner from Maggiano's (a really yummy italian restuarant) and an evening full of laughter, good conversation, and fun. We had to split up and go to two different houses because there were so many of us for dinner, but then met up at one house for dessert and hanging out afterwards. Where we had dinner we ate on nice china, the lights were dimmed, and candles burned on the tables. It was so romantic! :) We had so much fun. We took Dylan with us and he did pretty well. He lasted until about 10 pm, then it was home to bed for us. It was a nice way to celebrate Valentine's Day with Paul since we didn't get to do anything the night before. I am so lucky to have such a great guy in my life!! I don't want to get too lovey dovey here because I know none of you want to read about that. But I do want to say that I am a pretty lucky girl. I have the best husband that anyone could ask for. He is so sweet and thoughtful, and for anyone who knows him, he is so much fun to be with! My life would not be complete without him! It was a great Valentine's Weekend.
(The group picture I posted was taken after we left to get our little man in bed - along with a few other couples. So there were a couple of us missing.)