New Trick

What stinks about being a working parent is you miss quite a lot of the firsts. Almost every day, Mike tries to have Dylan recreate some new thing he did that day so that I can see it. And, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I get to "share" some of these things with them during my work day. I just got the cutest video of Dylan's newest trick. Pretty awesome!

This is a fun new development that has an entry spot in our baby book. Exciting to fill in the dates on those. Yay Dylan! (Said while clapping along with him!)

Irish Cuteness

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! This year, I won't be celebrating like yesteryear St. Patty's Days, but I did acknowledge the day by wearing green (both work and work out outfits) and pinched some folks that weren't.

Tonight, I plan to enjoy the nice weather with my boys and go for a post work stroll. Yay for Spring! Hopefully, the green of the day will extend to make the trees green very soon.

As Dylan does have some Irish blood, we couldn't let the holiday pass without an official outfit. There is a St. Patrick's themed onsie below the huge bib, but he was apparently too busy playing today to be patient having his picture taken. Plus, the boy always has to have a bib on....he's a drool fountain! (Teeth should be arriving any day now. We check every morning for them.)

And for some more Irish cuteness, my sister in law's dog, Kaiser, made the Boston Globe's web site's Local Irish pride list. You can view the link here, or just view the picture below. Too cute!

Have a safe, happy and fun holiday!

Big Cats, Big Progress and Big Rain

This is kind of a mish mash post since I've been ignoring this blog for the last week and have a few notable events to mention.

Last week we had some absolutely gorgeous spring weather. Mike and Dylan took advantage of it and had a very spur of the moment zoo trip with Mike's Dad. He's been doing well post surgery and was looking to get out on a walk and use his crutches a little more. So, with our new zoo pass in hand, they went to the Stoneham Zoo (near Mike's parents' house). Mike, Dylan and Bumpa (what Dylan will call Mike's Dad) had a great time roaming around the zoo.

I asked Mike for some of his favorite pictures of the day. They were all of the big cats! Those kitties were pretty active that day. In fact, the snow leopard was VERY interested in Bumpa....perhaps almost too interested. The cat stalked him as he walked by on his crutches and was eyeing him the whole time he was in sight.

Snow Leopard Giving Bumpa the Eye!!!

Jaguar
Cougar

I learned of their little outing after the fact which was probably for the best. I was pretty jealous of my father in law getting to enjoy such a nice, fun day at the zoo with Mike and Dylan while I was stuck at work. Something I'll just have to get used to, I'm sure.

Speaking of missing things while at work, I also missed the first event of a huge milestone with Dylan. Apparently, crawling (after knowing how a week and a half) was no longer challenging for him because he was ready to move on to the next step - pulling up to stand! He did this on Mike at the end of last week. Mike called me instantly. Lucky for me, Dylan was more than happy to recreate the event on me that evening. I caught it on video this weekend. So far, he's limited this new skill to our legs....surely furniture will come next.

After the wonderful sunny weather we had last week, we've had nothing but rain since Friday. A lot of it. It's really causing some problems around town and our house hasn't been excluded. Now, we don't have a water tight basement by any means, but, in 5 years of living in it, we've never had water in it like we do now. I had to wade through about 3-4 inches at the bottom of my stairs to get to my washer and dryer last night. We reassessed the damage this morning and somehow, after a night of continued rain, it's not quite as bad as last night.

Unfortunately, as I was leaving for work this morning, I discovered that our carpet tiles in the mudroom are soaking wet. So wet that our sub floor is starting to buckle. Not good. I moved out one of the new benches to keep it from getting damaged and Mike's gotten in touch with our contractor who is going to have someone come check it out. I'm crossing my fingers that it's an easy fix. The rain is expected to end tomorrow so we'll just have to wait it out and then do what we can to reverse the effects of it. Here's hoping for sunny skies soon.

Franklin Park Zoo

This weekend, Spring was in the air. Given that this is Boston and it's the beginning of March, it's likely we'll see more snow before we see our true Spring. But the weather this weekend was sunny and wonderfully mild...a great time to be outdoors. So, Mike, Dylan and I headed out to see if the wild animals were out enjoying the weather too and spent some of the day at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Wait, can we get a close up on that goat?!?

Cutest little goat I've ever seen! Though he's quickly starting to outgrow it, I still really enjoy carrying Dylan around in our front carrier. He loves it to! I love this picture that Mike took of the two of us.

A couple of the zoos in the area work in partnership with each other. It just so happens that one of the zoos is near our house (Franklin Park) and another is by Mike's parents' house, which they frequent often. Since it's a family favorite thing to do, we bought a family year pass. So, this will be the first of many trips to the zoo over the next year. If you want to come with us, let us know!

We spent a couple of leisurely hours exploring the zoo. Since it's still winter, lots of animals weren't on display. Next time we go back, we'll look forward to seeing them. There was also a lot of construction happening to improve exhibits and create new ones. There will be lots of new things to see on future visits.

Today's trip definitely had a few highlights. We just loved looking at the bachelor lion, Christopher. When we were walking towards the exhibit, we heard him doing lots of roaring. By the time we got where we could see him, he had settled down.
Though Mike and I loved watching Christopher, Dylan didn't really seem to notice him. As we walked away from the enclosure, he started to roar again. So we ran back and this time got to see him walk around and "talk." This time, Dylan definitely took notice!

Christopher Talking

We also enjoyed watching a young zebra get frisky with one of the older zebras. Dad (?) zebra didn't seem to want to play but the little guy was persistent. It was cute.
Perhaps Dylan's favorite part of the zoo was all of the wild animals surrounding us. Not the ones behind the gates but the ones standing right next to us! He just loved watching all the other kids around us. Another big excitement for him were the waterfalls in some of the interior exhibits. The water was mesmerizing! Dylan also got tons of entertainment by kicking the glass and patting the railings of the exhibits. It's the little things in life that make him happy!

8 Months Old

It literally feels like last week I was saying Dylan had just turned 6 months old and, here he is, 8 months old today! His growth must go that much quicker because I get so little time with him during the week. I truly try to relish every moment in the evenings and weekends that I get to spend with him.

We've had a great month settling in to more of what will be our normal routine. Mike and Dylan have been enjoying their time at home together and are finding lots of fun things to do. Some of Dylan's favorite things are......

Watching Bubbles

Bouncing

And Painting! He's Our Own Little Picasso

He's become a great eater and has 3 meals of "solid" food every day. He's a champ at feeding himself cheerios and really enjoys eating those while we get his rice cereal, fruits and vegetables ready for him to eat. We've started making some baby food for him which has been a lot of fun.

After threatening to crawl for a couple of weeks, Dylan abandoned attempts altogether two weeks ago when he figured out how to sit up by himself. After perfecting that skill for a week, he took up trying to move again. Since starting to crawl on Monday, he has really improved by leaps and bounds over the week. Dylan will cross the room to get toys and can even get across the slippery hardwood floors. When needing a little snuggle time, he'll even crawl over to us. So sweet!

He enjoys hearing himself babble and talk. There still aren't a ton of new distinguishable sounds coming out of his mouth, but Mike and I think we heard a "la la" sound over the last couple of days. Even though he doesn't try to mimic us, he definitely enjoys us making simple sounds to him and is studying our mouths very carefully. I expect he'll try them out for himself any day now.

What a busy month it's been. So many exciting baby developments....we're looking forward to the new adventures of month #8.

He's On the Move

I've had a lot of mixed feelings about this day (excitement and lots of dread) and it's finally here. Dylan is officially mobile! He's figured out this whole crawling thing and is on the move!

For several weeks now, he's been rocking back and forth on all fours ready to go. Last week, though, he totally abandoned movement attempts to perfect his "sitting up" skills from all fours. Mission accomplished! He's sturdy as a rock (albeit a soft stone), can pop right up, look up and around without falling right back on his noggin', and can catch himself when he does start to lose balance.

So with that skill checked off the list, it was back to trying to move. On Monday, Mike dropped by my office with Dylan after a doctors appointment. (He was getting checked out after 2 nights of crying himself to sleep to make sure everything was a-okay since that was a new thing for him. Normally, he's a peaceful, happy guy when going to bed. Everything checked out well so we had to adjust bed time routines for happier crib to sleep time. It's going well.) One of my coworkers brought out a toy car (Viper) and sure enough, Dylan went forward two crawls and grabbed it. That was a first! Apparently, Dylan is motivated by shiny, fast cars like his mom!

Yesterday, while I was at work and the boys were at home, they worked on the skill some more. Mike even got video proof:

Though still a little wobbly, it seems as if he's got it down. What motivates him to crawl? Mommy? No. Daddy? No. Fun toys? No. Coupons? Yes (as seen in the video). I guess he's frugal. Tissue paper? Heck yes! He loves things that crinkle. Kitties? Yes! As you can guess, Oliver and Luci are not thrilled with this new development. I'm thinking they are going to start finding higher places to lay their head during the day to stay clear of the mobile monster.

Is now a good time to start thinking about what might need to be baby proofed in the house? Wish us luck.....I have a feeling we're going to need it!

Wardrobe Shuffle

You know that time, once a year, when you go through everything in your closet, decide if you've worn it in the last year, see if it still fits and is flattering, throw out and reorganize as needed? Well, I'm doing that almost every weekend for both Dylan and myself. He's growing like a weed and I'm doing some shrinking.

For Dylan, this involves taking out the clothes that are a little too snug or short, and putting them in a bin which fits nicely in his closet. Then, I get the next size up of clothes hanging in his closet, remove all the tags, wash them, and hang them or fold them. Even though his clothes are pretty tiny, I've already filled one and a half bins with clothes to keep for possible future babies (yeah, I said it...maybe more in our future...someday).

For me, it's a bit more work. I feel like I'm having to "shop" for new clothes constantly. Unfortunately, the fun of shopping for new clothes at the mall when losing weight is taken out of the mix since I still have lots of clothes from pre-weight loss days to choose from. So, it's a trip down to the basement to dig through the bins of clothes there, try them on, wash them and hang them up. I also try on most of the clothes still hanging in the closet to see if they still fit and sort them out as needed. The ones that get pulled from the rack then return to another bin that, when filled, will go down to basement storage. My bins don't fit nicely in my closet so I constantly have to stare at them sitting on the floor of my bedroom. I hate clutter!

Just last week, I officially took out my last pieces of maternity clothes (some of those t-shirts were still pretty comfy and hard to let go of). I laugh at my pregnant self that dreamed of burning all of the maternity clothes I was sick of wearing right after delivery. Haha! Those clothes stuck around far longer than I wish they would have! How come no one tells you that? Once you pop out that baby, the belly and the baby weight sticks around for a while and your pre-pregnancy clothes are going to stay in storage for a while.

Having a healthy growing baby and a healthy shrinking mommy are both good things. But man is it creating a lot of wardrobe shuffling. I look forward to the point when both of us taper off a bit (for me, when the weight is off) and the closet cleaning can happen just a little less frequently.