Zoo Lights 2010

With a few vacation days left to burn before the end of the year (I can't roll them over), I took off Monday to spend the day with the boys. The weather forcast for the day was dismal so we didn't make any fun plans. The excitement at our house for the day was cleaning out our pantry and reorganizing some cabinets. Then we had a fun trip to the grocery store. Can you stand how glamorous my life is? A day off for housework and errands....how fun!

As the day progressed and the rain decreased, it looked as if we were actually going to get a decent evening. So, we called up Mike's parents (Nana and Bumpa) and asked if they wanted to join us for Zoo Lights at the Stone Zoo near their house. They were in! So, we packed up and headed up to their place.

We were assuming Dylan would nap on the way up there but he didn't. So, after chasing the kittens around Nana and Bumpa's house for a while, having a big dinner and being overwhelmed by all the Christmas lights, we ended up getting mostly dazed looks on all of our pictures. Don't be fooled, though, he had a great time and loved it!

Dylan and Phinny

Also due to the tiredness, he was only interested in being held. Bumpa was a trooper and carried him around most of our time there. I told him I would take him back when his arms got tired and his response was "I'll rest my arms when I get home." I think Bumpa was having a fun time with his grandson!

Dylan is an absolute pro at finding every Santa and snowmen in the vicinity. Last week, on our "stroll" down Centre St. (yet to be blogged about), he met a real live Santa for the first time. He seemed a little unsure about the big guy so we pointed out that Santa had the same hat as Dylan...how neat! Ever since, he seems to be obsessed with his Santa hat and has insisted on wearing it at all times. Two weeks ago we couldn't keep a hat on him without tying it on and now he tells us the second it falls off.

Nana, Dylan and Bumpa

Last year, we got to take a picture with two young reindeer. This year, we had our picture with a gorgeous barn owl.

What a gorgeous bird!

At the entrance to the "Santa" section is a really nice photo op. Last year, that photo op being the cute family portrait that made our Christmas card. This time, another great shot of us all!

Since the line to see Santa wasn't very long, we decided to give it another go. Our attempts the previous weekend (on the stroll I hope to blog about soon) weren't awesome. Maybe with practice, he'd be less apprehensive about Santa. While in line, he excitedly pointed out every Santa and "ho, ho, ho'd" at them. When we got up to the real one, he was overwhelmed. As I approached Santa, Dylan's arm wrapped tighter around mine and his legs clenched around my waist. Being the sly mom that I am, I sneakily squatted near Santa's leg while holding Dylan and swiftly transferred him and slipped my hand away for the picture. I'm not sure which one of them looks more confused\deer in the headlights about the situation!

Dylan and Santa!!

(If you look closely you can see my hand

still on the arm of the chair.)

After the photo, we went back out to see the moving displays set up outside Santa's castle.

Dylan had a great time watching the trains ("shhh shh"...still working on his choo choo noise) go around and around the track.

But he was most amazed by the GIANT teddy bear that blinked his eye. He was uninterested in any other characters after him and kept looking back towards him and pointing. We don't have a picture of the actual bear, but this is Dylan looking on in wonder!

There were a couple of kid rides there as well. The poor guy was so tired at this point that my usual adventure seeker really didn't want to go on them. We tried anyway. Here we are standing beside a horse on the carousel. Yeah, I stood there like an idiot while we went round and round.

He wouldn't let go of me to drive the little cars around but he did go on the spinning barrels with Mike and I. After that, we let the sleepy boy call it a night and headed home. He crashed pretty quickly after hitting his car seat.

Sleepy Santa

I'm not sure who's enjoying all these great Christmas activities more, me or Dylan!

A Boston Holiday Tradition

Enchanted Village is a Boston tradition dating back to 1940. My father in law remembers going to see the display as a child in the Jordan Marsh store in downtown Boston. I first went a few years ago with Mike's family so that we could partake in the Christmas fun. Last year, the village was bought by a local furniture chain, Jordan's, and is set up in one of their stores for 3 months of the year. We thought Dylan would enjoy seeing it so we went to it a couple of weeks ago.

As a set built 70 years ago, the storefronts are from another era and the "animation" of the characters is very rudimentary. Even so, there's a sense of nostalgia to it (even though these types of scenes predate my life) and a warm, innocent, holiday feel to the set up that makes it very enjoyable.

Dylan was having trouble with his naps that day (as seems to be a recurring theme over the last couple of weeks) so he was pretty tired going into it. So, we saw a lot of the deer in the headlights look but the eyes were definitely taking it all in and the pointing finger at all that interested him confirmed he truly enjoyed it.

The cutest addition to the set that Jordan's contributed was snow. Christmas music was constantly playing, of course, but when Bing Crosby's White Christmas came up, machines revved up in several areas around the set and bubbles started falling from the sky. All the kids (and parents) loved that!

"Snow" Falling

It was a nice, low key, Christmas activity and it was free....a win, win, win situation. That means we'll likely visit again next year.

Park Fun

Dylan is a lucky boy. He loves parks and his Dad takes him to them often. Usually, our weekends have other fun activites and not a lot of park time. However, one weekend not too far back, I was lucky enough to spend some time at a cool park with the boys. Admittedly, I think most of the equipment in the park was more fun for Mike and I. We would be playing (Mike and I) and realize that one of us should probably follow our kid that just took off back to equipment he enjoyed more. His favorites were the bouncy see saw and (as usual) the swing. Here are just a couple of cute pics snapped that day.





(Note, my Christmas to do list is overwhelming me a little and obviously making me a little forgetful about blog details. I realized after posting that I'd already put up a couple of these pics with Dylan's 17 month old post. Oops, my bad is a present to you....you get to see cute pictures of Dylan again! Merry Christmas!)

Decorating

With the perfect tree freshly cut from the farm, we were ready to adorn it with decorations. Our Christmas decorations are a completely eclectic mix of some my parents passed on to me (cookie dough ornaments from the late 70s\early 80s), some I bought very cheaply when a poor college students, ornaments that were gifts and a few that Mike and I have collected together. It's always fun to pull them out and go on a trip down memory lane.

Last year, Dylan being only 5 months old when we decorated our tree, he was a part of it only because he was attached to me (literally...in a front pack). This year was so much fun because we were able to explain to him what was going on (of course, he probably didn't understand all of it), he was interested in what was going on and was a voluntary participant in the event.

Mike pulled out the ornaments, unwrapped them and I put them on the tree and handed Dylan some that were extremely child friendly for him to put on the tree by himself (okay, well some with a little assistance). Family fun and team work. Even the cats were in the room and we had them get involved.

Oliver (Yes, he hated us for a while after this)

Luci

Dylan Decorating the Tree

All of "his" ornaments got clustered in one spot

My Special Ornament

(This was a birthday present to me from Dylan.)

The Final Product!

This being the first year Dylan was mobile with a tree around, we were a bit worried about how it would go. We took the basic precautions of not putting anything fragile down low and then waited to see if we what else we might have to do to keep baby and tree safe from each other. Surprising, Dylan has done really wonderful with it. Other than picking off the ornaments he put on the tree (and then trying to put them back on again), the two have lived in harmony with each other.

Every day, Dylan helps us plug in the tree and we always take some time to study and talk about some of the ornaments. He is an expert in pointing out Santa's ("Ho, ho, ho") and snowmen ("no no") on the tree and everywhere we go. Other words he knows or has learned that relate to ornaments we have are star, ball, baby, choo choo and tree. Today he also learned elf and attempted to say nutcracker. It didn't come out sounding anything like that but that was definitely what he was referring too. Who knew holidays were such great teaching tools?!?!

Christmas Tree Farm

Last weekend was our official Christmas holiday kick off weekend. We had big family plans for the weekend. On Saturday, Mike and I were going to Mike's sister's annual Christmas party and Sunday we were going with Mike's parents to a Christmas tree farm to find our family's tree. Because of the time line and the locations, we decided to have a big slumber party at my in-law's house. Maureen's kids (Mike's sister), Emily and Patrick, were staying over as well so it would be a full house.

Everything started off as planned. We went over to Mike's parents, had a great time eating dinner with them and Dylan happily waved us off to the party. And, as we do every year, Mike and I had a great time at Maureen's Christmas party. When we got back to Mike's house is when plans got totally derailed. Dylan was lightly stirring when one of the new kittens knocked something over with a bang. That woke him right up and he starting wailing. With the little one not calming well, Mike and I realized that if we stayed none of the 3 of us would be getting any sleep and we'd likely start waking the rest of the house at some point. We made the decision to head home. It was close to midnight and we were all in our pj's. So, we gathered what possessions we would need for the night, wrapped up in blankets and headed to the car.

It ended up being a great decision. Once we got home, Dylan went to bed easily and slept in so that Mike and I actually got a somewhat decent night's sleep. All of us refreshed, we got started later in the morning and went back to Nana and Bumpa's to pick up with the rest of our plans. Next on the agenda - a trip just across the border to NH to a Christmas tree farm.

Somewhere back in the recesses of my mind (and I'll have to consult with my parents about this), I seem to remember doing this as a family in my younger years. But, as Mike can confirm, my memory is crap so this felt like my first time with this type of experience.

The 6 of us packed up in one car (Mike, Nana, Bumpa, cousin Emily, Dylan and myself) and made the 45 minute trip up. Once there, we paid, received a saw in exchange for our money and drove down the road a little ways. We parked and set out to find the perfect tree!

In the Christmas Spirit!

Which tree will be ours?

Dylan had an absolute blast walking around the fields with all of us and, as usual, a great time with his cousin, Emily. She did a great job being in charge of him while my in laws, Mike and myself were doing the difficult job of searching through the farm for the tree that would come home with us.

Stopping for a pose

Ready to Help Dad

Riding the Cart with Emily

Tom and Betsy found their tree then helped us find ours. With our high ceilings and placement of the tree in the corner this year, we were looking for tall, not too wide, but with good branches to hold lots of ornaments. Finally, we decided on one and Mike, Dylan and Tom had some team work to cut it down.

Dylan, and the little helper he likes to be, just had to help wheel it back to the car.

There was just a moment when Mike had to steer over some stumps that Dylan was forced to let go of the cart. The face below shows you how he felt about that!

The Pout

It was a good way back to the car so Emily decided to entertain us with her gymnastic skills. She's an awesome little gymnast and Dylan just thinks all of her tricks are hilarious. He was belly laughing at her....it was very cute!

Wheeling it in to get it wrapped up

Two Beautiful Trees Loaded and Ready To Go

Since Emily had done such a great job with Dylan, we gave her the lunch pick. So, on the way back to the highway, we stopped at a Burger King (I was a good sport too since I'm really not a fast food gal) and we had a fun lunch together before heading back. After dropping everyone off, we headed home to trim the tree!

George's New Home

Last week, I dusted off my poor, ignored tools and put them to good use. While I don't claim to be any kind of master craftswoman, I do enjoy creating something tangible and useful with my hands. Mix that with my enjoyment of home decorating and coming up with solutions to problems, well, naturally that leads to building stuff for my house.

The current problem at hand was my inventive table I made several years ago to house our tortoise's cage. His name is George and he's been with Mike and I since early in our relationship. Obviously he's a part of the family and deserves a great roost. His address was a nice wide shelf with legs made of plumbing pieces that sat above the radiator in our living room. While this tall, narrow table made a great home for him with only adults living in the house, it was a little too wobbly with a toddler occasionally grabbing and shaking a leg. Since I didn't want George's big, heavy, glass atrium to land on top of Dylan's head, a new home was necessary.

Before - George's Place

I've never been a huge fan of radiator covers (preferring the more industrial\traditional look of the radiator) but to make the space usable and safe for Dylan, that was the obvious choice. I took some time researching some design ideas and spent a lot of time planning out the construction. Since my house has some craftsman influenced style and I like to play up that architectural look, I chose to make a slatted style cover. With my design and measurements in hand, the family headed to Home Depot last Sunday.

Dylan fell asleep so Mike stayed with him in the car while I checked out the lumber selection and did some figuring of what I wanted and how much of it I would need. An hour later, we were loading it up on top of the car and Dylan had gotten in a nice nap. To give me some time to start the work, the boys headed off to the grocery store. While they were gone, I was able to make all the cuts I needed. During Dylan's afternoon nap, I got most of it assembled, got a little more done with his "help" after he woke up (he basically walked all over it while I was trying to screw in my mending brackets) and finished the last of it after he went to bed.

The rest of the week was spent sanding and staining. By Saturday morning, I was ready for installation. The boys helped me (and Dylan learned a new word "drill") and in no time our new radiator cover\George's new home was ready for it's occupant.

The New Radiator Cover

A Closer Look

Since George's atrium is much deeper than the radiator cover needed to be, I brought back the top of his old table, set it on top and it was done!

After - George Is Home!

It wasn't a complicated project at all once I actually got started on it. The planning process was the toughest part. I'm very happy with the result. However, this was just my warm up project. Next I'm doing a radiator cover with flanking shelves, to look like a built in piece, in our sun room\playroom so we have a good storage spot for Dylan's growing book collection. I bought some of the lumber yesterday and will start construction this week. Likely the project will not be done before our Christmas travel\party commitments but I hope to have that finished project to show off early in the new year!

17 Months

Yep, it's that time again. The 6th day of the month and it's time to wish my toddler (not a baby anymore) another happy month of life. As usual, he's changing and developing like crazy and it's hard to keep up with all the differences on even a month to month basis. I'll try to hit all the highlights but it's inevitable that I'll miss something!

His vocabulary is increasing on an average of 2-3 words per day which I find absolutely amazing. He's able to communicate his needs so well that it's making our jobs to figure out what's needed so easy. Mastering this stage of life as child and parents will, I'm sure, lead to new challenges in the near future (I hear terrible 2's starts around 18 months usually) but for now, we're leading pretty peaceful, easy going, fun lives together. Some of my favorite new words that he says - Oliver (our oldest cat), open, airplane (sounds more like a derivation of dada but it's definitely what he's referencing), baby, drill and lawn mower. Yep, definitely his mom's son because he has a huge interest in machines and power tools. Here's a quick clip of him in one of his favorite places, the garage, checking out the scenery.

Our biggest challenge (well mostly Mike since he's at home with him the most) is that Dylan still wants to be held a lot. Of course it's nice in some ways (I realize snuggling days won't last forever) but since he's getting bigger, it's tough on the arms and backs. However, when Dylan comes up, grabs your legs, looks up at you with that sweet face and says "Up, please" (yes, he's learning his manners too), it's really impossible to refuse him and not pick him up. Hey, I don't blame him. It's pretty cool to see the world from a higher viewpoint than you're used to. It's why I still torture myself wearing super high heels from time to time!

Well, I guess we do have one other small challenge. Dylan really loves taking baths. That's obviously not the problem. The issue is that he still takes baths in his baby bath tub....the one that sits above the kitchen sink. It's a much bigger size than the traditionally thought of baby tub but still, he's not going to fit into it until he's 10 so we do eventually need him to take a "tubby" in our regular bath tub. My easy going, scared of nothing child turns into a different little boy when we try to put him in our regular tub. He won't have any of it. We tried putting his baby bath tub in it. Nope. Didn't work. Putting his baby tub on our bathroom floor. Nuh-uh...not having it. We tried storing the tub in the bathroom for a while so he'd get used to seeing in there. He would sit in it without water, play in it, take his toys in and out....the second we put water in it he would cling to us for life rather than get in. So, back to the kitchen it was. We'll try again in a couple of weeks. Eventually, he will make the transfer to a big boy tub.

Punk Rock Baby Enjoying His Tubby

He's also discovering the fun of playing games. We taught him "what a ghost says" for Halloween and he just loves scaring us with his "boo!" Acting scared of his adorable little boo will keep him giggling for quite some time. He's also learned to play hide and go seek. He still a ways away from winning any hiding contests but it's cool that he gets the concept. One of his two hiding places has become a favorite play spot - under the dining room table. He'll often slip under there for many minutes at a time (you know 2-4 minutes...an eternity for a child this age) and just hang out. He may not know it yet, but he's going to love playing "fort."

In addition to all of his mental developments, his changing physically too. Not only is the height increasing but his dexterity too. One of the big examples of that is eating with a fork and a spoon. He's been practicing with them for a while but now he's really proficient and prefers to eat his meals with them and only asks for our help on occasion. Dylan's also discovered the joy of spinning around. He's not yet to the around and around until he's dizzy point but I'm sure he'll find the fun in that very soon.

My sweet boy is learning to be affectionate upon request. He'll give us kisses and hugs. The hugs have been there for a while but the kisses are new. What cracks me up and baffles me is that they are (as with most kids) a big, slobbery, open mouth heading toward your face. Where do they get that? I don't see other people kissing that way (at least not in public nor on the tv he would see)! In any case, Mike and I tend to try and aim for either the top or bottom of his lips for our kiss and hope that eventually the mouth will close for his kisses. It's funny because if I ask for a kiss from Dylan and Mike is with us (or vice versa), he has to give kisses to both of us. Too cute.

Now, I realize true potty training is a ways off but we have officially hit step 1 of the process (or I guess #2 in this case) - Dylan has become aware of when he is pooping. Yet another one of his new words is "poop" and he says it sometimes before and other times just after he's done that deed. That's a big thing for a little dude to realize. My kid knows when he poops....I couldn't be more proud!!

So, that's your monthly Dylan update. We had a great time at a super cool park this weekend and I took some good shots. Here are just a couple of my cute little guy!

LOVES the swing!

My Happy Little Guy - 17 Months