5 Months

Yep, it's that time again. My baby has aged yet another month. Everyone always says "they grow too fast" and now I truly understand. Dylan has new "tricks" every week and Mike and I just love sharing our observations about how Dylan is discovering the world around him.

He had a lot of big firsts over the last month. Most importantly, his first plane ride and visit to his Mimaw and Pipaw's house for his first Thanksgiving. He is also starting to try out some solid foods for "practice." He's tried avocado, carrots, peas, kiwi and lemon (would you believe he loved the lemon and didn't even make the sour face?). Already, he's advanced from eating food off of our fingers to eating from a spoon....some of it even ends up in his mouth and not on his face.

His laughs have increased from about one time daily to several times a day and sometimes you just can't stop the boy from smiling! He's also gained such great strength in his neck that he is now facing forward in the strap on carrier that we use. Boy, does he love kicking around in that and looking at the world face on. Not only can he roll from his back to his stomach (which he's been doing for a while now), but he can now roll from his stomach to his back. He also does a lot of movements during his tummy time that folks tell me look quite similar to crawling moves. Who knows, that boy might be on the move soon!

A big change in his life this month that's had the biggest effect on all of us is that he's gained a huge interest in toys. He has a standing activity center with toys surrounding him that he'll play in for long periods at a time. So now he's not totally dependent on us for entertainment. It's nice to put him in his center to play while we get some things done around the house. Over the last couple of weeks, his interactions with the toys have gone from looking random to looking very purposed.

What a big month we've had! This next month will be very big. Not only will we be celebrating his half year birthday at the end of it but I'll be heading back to work. So, I'll have to get as many seconds as possible with Dylan over the next few weeks and soak as much in while I can.

The End of the Trek

Our last few days in Dallas were a little quieter since my little family and my parents were the only ones left. It was great to see my whole family and sad to see them all head home, but I think the last few days were a little more similar to the pace that Dylan is used to and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the quieter times.

Goodbye Love From The Kiddos

We had a nice time visiting with my parents and I think they really enjoyed having some one on one time with Dylan.

Mimaw in Boston Shirt and Dylan in Texas Gear

Also, even though Mike has obviously been to Dallas multiple times, our trips there have been centered around family events and he hasn't seen many of the tourist attractions. On our last day there, we took a rainy drive around town and my Mom showed him (as well as Dylan and I) the sights.

Dylan Seeing His First Longhorn

On Wednesday morning, we packed up to leave. Given that Dylan didn't sleep well the majority of the nights we were in Dallas, and especially not the night before we left, we were all pretty tired. It was going to be a long day. We got to the airport without incident nice and early (even though it was snowing in Dallas!). Dylan and I took some time to walk around the terminal to get some energy out. Along the way, we stopped in a Texas themed store and saw this adorable onsie:

Too funny! If it hadn't been ridiculously overpriced, he probably would have been wearing it today!

The beginning of the flight went fairly well. There were a few moments of fussiness when our neighbors weren't thrilled to be seated on the plane near us, Dylan only slept for about 20 minutes of it and we, both extremely exhausted, had to entertain him constantly on the trip, but it went pretty ok.

Dylan's 2nd Flight

Yes, we had a great time visiting family and friends but boy were we ready to get home! As they say, there's no place like home. Man is that ever true! We have had such a nice relaxing day back today and Dylan already seems much more his normal self (he was somewhat off throughout our entire trip). I'm glad to have that first dreaded flight\trip with baby behind us and we now have a few better tricks up our sleeve for next time.

The Dallas Zoo

The Friday after Thanksgiving, the weather was gorgeous in Dallas so we got up, had breakfast, packed a picnic lunch and all headed out to the Dallas Zoo.

During my childhood, I spent some time each summer at my grandmother's house, who lived near the zoo. It was a tradition of ours to go there together during that yearly visit. My parents have continued that tradition with their grandkids and take my nephew and niece each summer during "Mimaw and Pipaw Camp." However, I hadn't been to the zoo in probably 20 years. A lot has changed since my last visit there but some things haven't. So, in addition to it being a great day with family, a fun time seeing cool animals, a nice outing to enjoy the weather, it was also a bit of a trip down memory lane. I really enjoyed getting to share some of those childhood memories with Mike and make some new ones with my son.

Dylan Sportin' The Scally Cap

Reece, Presley, Ryker and Mike

Dylan Trying to Be Cool Like His Cousins

Presley, Ryker and Reece Are A Turtle!

Watching the Fish

Dylan's Favorite - Giraffes

Me, Presley and Dylan Watching the Giraffes

It was a full day of fun. However, we all still had enough energy that night to play some Rock Band. That was fun! The highlight of the evening was watching my Dad struggle to try and play the drums. Sorry, Dad, but it was a little funny!

Rock Band!

More Holiday Fun

One of the things we did a lot of during the holiday was watch football. Dylan and I watched the Longhorns beat the Aggies in their traditional Thanksgiving Day game...always a fun one to watch since I went to UT and my brother to A&M. My whole family watched the Cowboys win against Oakland (who Mike was cheering for) and we also watched the Patriots play against the Saints. Mike's in hog's heaven with all these games (except for that Pats loss of course) and I'm planning to not watch any more football for a while. Here's a picture of Dylan in his football gear before last weeks Pats game viewing.

Pipaw and Payton in Her Romo Jersey

As I said in my earlier post, we just enjoyed a lot of time over the holiday with my family. I had too many pictures I wanted to post so here are some more random ones. Enjoy!

Laughing With Uncle Jody

Cool Cats

Me With My New Niece Payton

Dylan & I Heading Out For A Walk

Dylan Meets His Cousins

Turkey Day

For the first time in almost a year (since last Christmas), my family all gathered for the holiday. Almost everyone at least. My sister-in-law wasn't able to be there the day of Thanksgiving with my other brother and sister-in-law but we did get to spend just a bit of time with her a couple of days after the feast. It was great to have everyone together.

This was also the first time that Dylan got to meet his cousins on my side of the family and the first time we got to meet our new niece, Payton. We had a good time together, had great food and took lots of pictures! Here are a few of my favorites.

Our Little Family's First Thanksgiving

Cousin Ryker (21 months) and Dylan

"Pipaw" (My Dad) with His Grandkids

Sarah, Jamie and Payton (2 Weeks)

The Family (My sis-in-law will have to be photo shopped in on the right)

And Our Favorite Picture.......

Dylan Getting a Taste of Cousin Payton - "Tastes Like Chicken!"

First Flight

Fairly last minute, our family decided that we could all get together (almost all at least) for the only time for quite a while to come during the Thanksgiving holiday. So, just 2 weeks before the holiday, we bought tickets to take our first family flight to Dallas.

One of the biggest things that scared me about being a parent was flying with a child. Time to face my fears! I stressed out a bit before the vacation about all the details. But, when the day arrived, I felt pretty prepared for all the challenges of flying with an infant. Of course, as kids do, they take your plans and preparedness and throw them out the window. My sweet, mild tempered, well traveling child turned into a screaming mess!

It might have been due to our packing and scrambling that morning and not paying attention to Dylan as usual, but he started screaming uncontrollably before we left the house for the airport. OK, nothing a nap in the car couldn't fix. Unfortunately, it continued once we got settled next to our gate in the terminal. Boy, could I feel the evil eyes pointed our way. I know all those folks waiting to get on the plane were hoping we weren't going to be getting on it with them and our screaming baby. He calmed a bit while boarding (whew!) but then started up again once the doors to the plane had closed (ugh!). We were doing everything we could but just couldn't get him to calm down.

Thanks to his great Dad, he was comforted enough to finally stop screaming somewhere during the first half of the ascent and fell asleep. Since he's so good at sleeping in the car, I presumed he would sleep for most of the flight. Wrong again! He took a 30-45 minute nap and then woke up. Oh boy was this going to be a long trip!

On the upside, Dylan was in better spirits. And, although he needed lots of attention, bouncing and entertaining for the next few hours, the screaming had subsided and everyone on the plane ceased hating us. So the flight was, all in all, a pretty good success if you didn't count the older gentleman sitting next to us that wouldn't stop talking....he definitely one (or a few) screws loose! Minor issues though. At least our baby wasn't completely miserable during the whole trip and we all got to Dallas safely.

Of course, during all the "excitement" of his first flight, we neglected to take and photos to document the big event. Perhaps the flight back will be less eventful and we can get a picture then!

Johnny Boy

Unfortunately, Saturday gave us another trip for one of my boys to the ER. This time, it was the little guy. Poor little Dylan!

Saturday late morning, I headed off to a yoga class and left the boys to play. When I got home, I fed Dylan and he fell asleep in my arms. Now, he only seems to nap well when we're holding him (wakes up when we put him down) and generally just seems to take cat naps throughout the day. Up to this point, the only odd thing about his behavior was that he had a decent length nap on Dad and then had a nice long nap with me after his feeding. Decent nap lengths happen on occasion so there was no major concern. However, only moments after waking up in my arms, he started projectile vomiting. That's a pretty scary sight coming from an infant. We called the doctor who ordered a wait and see. Dylan and I both got changed and the event occurred again shortly thereafter. And again. The doctor ordered we give him some water to prevent dehydration. The poor baby wouldn't drink anything nor nurse and he was moaning as I held him. It was so sad and pathetic. My gut told me this was no regular spit up after a feeding...something was really wrong. So, another call to the pediatrician and we were ordered to the ER.

Why is it Murphy's Law that baby's must get sick outside of the pediatrician's office hours? We chose our pediatrician, in part, because of their extended office hours and availability of doctors after hours. The doctor on call on Saturday after our pediatrician's office hours was a second office they use for after hours assistance. Even so, there was no where to go except to the ER for help.

Of course, once there, we had to go through the gamut of tests. First, he got hooked up so his pulse could be monitored and got changed into a johnny. The pediatrician in the emergency room came and did an exam. Ears clear, belly fine to the touch. Then they wanted urine and blood samples. That meant he got an IV (arm splinted to keep it in) and a catheter. Needless to say, Dylan did not enjoy these events and neither did we enjoy watching and listening to him scream in discomfort and unhappiness. Those results came back fine. Next up, an x-ray to make sure there was no intestinal blockage. In the meantime, they started him on fluids in his IV. The pictures came back mostly fine but had one questionable thing that they wanted to get checked out further on an ultrasound.

By this time, Dylan was calm after all the poking and prodding he'd experienced and was even acting like himself again. He was also nursing again and smiling and laughing. Whatever was ailing him was not bothering him anymore. However, we had to get through this last test. Dylan and I were wheeled on a stretcher down a floor for an ultrasound. The boy loves to move and he enjoyed the ride. At least the ultrasound wasn't unhappy for him to experience, as all the other tests were.

The results came back fine. Whatever they saw on the x-ray was something that can also happen with a stomach bug. So, that's what it was, a stomach bug. Gone as quickly as it came on. 6 hours in the ER. Ugh! On the one hand, I really beat myself up that my poor little baby had to go through all that torture for "no reason." At the time we took him in, though, I truly believed something was very wrong with him and it was good to have confirmation that he was okay. Definitely a rough day for us both.

The upside to all of this? Well, first and foremost, Dylan is healthy and we got the professional help we needed to confirm that. Today, he seems to be back to his happy self, which is just wonderful to see. Also, I'm not sure anyone ever looked as cute in a johnny (and splint and ET toe pulse monitor)!

Cute Baby in a Johnny (Obviously Taken During the Happy Evening)