Mini Picasso

A year ago, when Dylan was in daycare for a short stint (while Mike was recovering from back surgery), he was introduced to finger painting. There were a couple of times, probably before his first birthday, that Dylan and Mike continued this activity at home. However, with lots of other activities keeping the boys busy, finger painting was forgotten. There was a very long stretch of time that Dylan did not dip his fingers in paint.

I'm not sure what prompted it, but Mike pulled the paints back out a few weeks ago and I was surprised with a beautiful painting Dylan created upon my arrival home from work. Dylan enjoyed the experience so much, it was decided it must be done again and soon! This time, though, Mom would get to see the fun!

On St. Patrick's Day, our family all wore green. Other than that, our big celebration was finger painting! Right after I got home (and still in my gym clothes), I laid out a drop cloth, put a smock on Dylan and busted out the paint. At first, Dylan very carefully put one finger in the paint and slowly spread it around.

Getting Started

Then, Mike reminded Dylan that he could use his whole hand and then he really got into it! His whole hand got in it, we handed him brushes to use and feet even got involved. I would give him a choice of a color or two to add to the mix, Dylan would pick, I would put on a dollop and he painted away!

He's Even Got Paint on His Nose!

He was very focused and had a great time. After we flew through several canvases, it was time for us both to hit the bath....we were covered in bright colors. Thank god for washable paints! We've definitely got a little Picasso on our hands that wants to create. We'll be sure to give him the opportunity to do so a lot more often.

Aquarium

Last week, I took a day off work for Mike and I to run around town doing some errands\shopping related to our upcoming addition. While it's still months away from the time we break ground, we have a lot to do now in order to get our budget together. So, we're devoting a lot of time to the project right now. Unfortunately, a lot of these showrooms don't have hours that work with our schedule, hence the need to take some time off to get some rounds done.

It was a packed day and Dylan was a serious trooper being dragged around all day long. And, even though he had a great time "playing" in all the showrooms, we decided to spend the last hour of our busy day doing something fun. Since we were in the neighborhood, we went to the New England Aquarium for some fish viewing.

Creepy Yellow Eel

Big Ol' Manta Ray

Myrtle the Turtle!

Well, Mike and I had a great time looking at fish. Dylan had a great time running around, climbing up on what he could and touching everything he could in the touch tank.

Pat, pat the Penguin

Touching the Fish

Myrtle the Turtle!

Trying to Get a Better Look at the Penguins

Fun in the Gift Shop

Harbor Seals at the Entrance

As Dylan was a little bit of a tired mess and Mike and I were definitely a little worn out from the day, we  did not feel as if the hour we had there was too small of a time frame. It was just enough time to see some cool things and have some family fun.

The Frozen Falls Mission

Two weekends ago, we finally had the opportunity to spend another weekend at our place in NH. We hadn't been since New Years Eve....quite a long stretch for us to go without visiting the mountains! When life is stressful and hectic, it can sometimes seem like the packing up and traveling will just add to it. However, after spending time at our place there, I'm amazed at how refreshed and relaxed I feel. It really is a great getaway for our family.

The weather in Boston had definitely been showing signs of spring. At this point in the season, pretty much everyone, including winter lovers, is ready for the arrival of a new, warmer season. Me included! However, it also reminds me that I need to shove in as much winter fun as possible because it's almost gone. So, for that weekend, I had a frozen falls mission. Earlier in the week I had read about frozen falls in the area, one of which is just a 45 minutes drive, and short hike of course, from our place. It got me looking for others that might be even closer to us and I found a trail that boasted of 2 falls in a short 1.2 mile trek from a parking spot just a few exits north on the highway. So, after a good breakfast, we bundled up and set out to find the Georgiana Falls trail.

My Big Boy Eating Breakfast By Himself in a "Big Boy" Chair

And Sharing with Monkey

Ready for Some Snow Fun

Does this make my butt look big??

It was one of those days that we couldn't feed Dylan fast enough. Despite a big breakfast, he was ready for some more refueling shortly into the trip. Must have been all that hard work he was doing while sitting on my back. So, he was fed by me on the go...his mittens keep his hands warm but don't allow him actual use of his hands.

Dylan was very excited to discover an "UNDER" (small rock cave) just off the trail.

About a mile in, we came to the falls. At least, we think we did. There was SO much snow still up there that there was still a very thick blanket over everything, including running water. There was one spot (on the left) that we did actually see water.

Georgiana Falls

The Family in Front of the "Falls"

We continued on to try and find Harvard Falls further up the path. The trail was much less distinct there and too steep at times for comfortable crossing in slippery snow. However we trekked on and it's possible we "saw" Harvard Falls. At minimum, we saw an open area of snow with an incline. There was no water to be seen so we don't know for sure if that was the falls or not. But, with the difficult way up, I didn't want to go too much further and deal with more of a difficult way down carrying my little tot.

The Monkey on My Back

Woodpecker'd Tree

Dylan kept pointing at the mess the woodpecker had made and yelling "dirty!"

It was a close, easy hike (or would be without snow), so we're planning to go back and actually see the waterfalls flowing with spring snow melt.

Back at the car, there was a nearby field where we made some new friends, Buckshot and Cappuccino:

The next day, back at the condo, I still had the frozen falls mission. Even though it was pouring rain, we headed into our "back yard" to see what the small waterfall back there looked like. We've seen this fall in every season for 4 years now. It's amazing how different it looks at every viewing. This trip showed us the waterfall like we'd never seen it before.....you couldn't see it at all! No water, no ice, just a really thick blanket of snow.

I swear there's a waterfall under there somewhere!

No really, there is!

I don't know if my mission was successful or not. While we certainly didn't "see" waterfalls, frozen or not, we saw snowy place markers of where they should be. We'll soon be saying goodbye to the winter season soon and snow melt in spring makes for some powerful waterfalls. Hopefully, we'll be able to get up to our mountain retreat in the next few months to see some of them in action.

The Animal Whisperer

Life has gotten away from me and I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged about some of it! 

Rewind to President's Day weekend. With an extra day of family fun to enjoy, we met up with friends Tamara and Ross, as well as their daughter Elsa, for a trip to the Stone Zoo. While the weather had been great all weekend, it was a bit more frigid that day then any of us realized. The clock was counting down to closing time and we all made a quick, cold trip around to see the animals.

Mike and I arrived a few minutes before the rest of the gang and since time was limited, we went to visit the bears while we waited for our friends to join us. On the way in, I had given Dylan a veggie straw (our new favorite "chip" type snack) and then another a few minutes later. Apparently, he hadn't eaten either one of them and was holding one in each hand. When we got to the bear exhibit, he hopped out of his stroller for a closer look....and the bear came right up to him for a closer smell of his snack! 

The bear followed him back and forth while the rest of the crowds watched in awe at the interaction. Being the sweet boy that he is, when we told him the bear wanted his snack, he held it up to share with him. That thick glass got in the way though! After a while, Dylan determined the sharing wasn't going to happen and he was indeed hungry, so he gobbled up the snack while the bear watched and licked his chops.

After that we headed back to the gate to meet up with the Morrow family. Elsa was bundled up and they were ready to see some animals with us. We wandered around the zoo, seeing what we could see, while we talked and caught up with each other's lives. The highlight of what we saw was the beautiful snow leopard who was pacing around his enclosure and let us see him up close and in action.

Tamara, Elsa, snow leopared, Mike and Dylan

After a quick stop by Mike's parents, who live nearby, to say hi and warm up poor Dylan's frozen little hands (he didn't have his gloves and would not let me be successful in my repeated attempts to warm them), we went over to the Morrow's for dinner. Good times were had by all. We snapped the below pic and we just love the look on little Elsa's face here!

And on a trip that Mike and Dylan took to our Franklin Park zoo just this week, Dylan had a fun interaction with a cute lemur.

Dylan sure does seem to have a way with animals, doesn't he? I suppose with two animal loving parents, it's in his genes but even I'm shocked at what a connection he seems to have to wildlife sometimes! My own little animal whisperer!

The Luck of the Irish Dog

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone! While we had no special plans today, other than wearing green, we'll be enjoying holiday over the weekend up north with a high school friend, her Irish husband and her 1/2 Irish son. Of course, there's a lot of Irish blood in Mike's family as well, which makes Dylan a good part Irish. Me, well, I'm just along for the fun. I got this awesome picture from my sister-in-law that I just had to share. Enjoy!

Mojo and Kaiser Getting Their Irish On!

20 Months

Today hits a big 20 month mark since Dylan entered our lives. As always the amount he changes in just a 4 week time period never ceases to amaze me. Here are the major developments we've seen lately.

While he continues to add to his vocabulary with words, he's also starting to join them together. That's right, we've had some 2 word sentences. Sometimes over dinner, when the boys are telling me about their day, Dylan will put in his two cents about what they did while I was at work. While neither Mike nor I can think of an exact example of this at the moment, Dylan's definitely said something like "guitar, hat" when referring to seeing his music teacher playing her guitar while wearing a hat.

While Dylan's night time sleep schedule is usually so regular you can set your watch to it (which is why I haven't needed to use an alarm clock in over a year), we've had a bit of a disruption to our schedule this month thanks to a cold and cutting 3 teeth. As soon as the third tooth cut through last week and the snot became a little less flowing, we went right back to our getting full nights sleep. Thank goodness! After a few nights of my sleep being interrupted, I was a wreck! I've just gotten so spoiled!

Possibly another side effect of his cold is his sudden dislike for milk. Well, that coupled with our need to get some new sippy cups he wanted nothing to do with. Dylan went from going through a gallon plus every week to not wanting a drop. Weird. However, it hasn't tainted his dislike for any other foods. He must be going through a major growth spurt because we have a hard time keeping up with his food needs. Some days, in addition to good size meals, he'll snack non stop. Today, I took him for a run outside (with temps in the 60s!!!) and neglected to bring any food. I felt so bad when he kept asking for more and I didn't have anything to offer him but water. On the plus side, it motivated me to keep running at a good pace to get to my office. That was our destination for the run...to pick up my car and bring it home. (The boys picked me up from work on Friday so we could head to NH for the weekend and we forgot to pick it up on the drive home.)

With age comes independence and responsibility. Dylan's done a tremendous job of grasping both this month. If a stairway has good railings, he will walk up them all by himself. He's also putting on his own shoes some days! Most doors are not an obstacle to him anymore as he's learned to open some kids of door knobs\levers. As for the responsibility part, he's adopted his own chore to contribute to the household. Last week, Mike caught him in the act and Dylan's been consistent on staying on top of this task since. See the video for evidence\details:

Feeding the Cats

The boy's got pretty good manners and some polite words have been added to his vocabulary as well. Though not said distinctly, in context, Dylan is now using the phrases "thank you" (mostly with prompting) and "excuse me" (mostly when he needs to step on you or push you out of the way when he's playing on his train table).

When Dylan's not minding his manners or listening to his parents, he's also learned the use of "time out." There have been a few occasions where he gets placed in a particular chair outside of the action as a reprimand. Obviously, he's not there for tons of time but it seems to be effective. For example, when he gets upset, he tends to throw things. When he does this, we normally have him pick up the item. Sometimes, he does not listen when we ask him to do this so he goes to the chair for a short amount of time. When he is allowed to get out of the chair and we repeat the request, he does it without hesitation.

Like his Daddy, Dylan enjoys electronic gadgets. He's discovered the joys of You Tube and has some favorite video he will pick up my iPhone and request. One is Elmo singing the ABC's with India Arie (a singer\songwriter). Now, we'll hear him sing "ABC, ABC" to the tune of that You Tube video. Mike uses an iPod loaded with favorite movies to fall asleep to at night. Dylan likes to hold it and look at it on the mornings we're slow to get out of bed. One movie often playing is one of the Harry Potter series. When Dylan called Dumbledore "HoHo" (Santa), we corrected him and taught him how to say Dumbledore. Of course, we had to let him know the movie was all about Harry Potter. So, now he often chants "Harry, Dumbledore" which sounds like this:

Another cute new fascination he has is with a specific book that his cousins, Corwin and Jacob, very sweetly passed down to him. It's called Big Words. And the title doesn't lie. The words are fairly complex for a child and definitely far too advanced for a kid his age. However, Dylan likes to call it the "baby" book (because the illustrations are of a large family and there is a cartoon picture of a baby on every page) and likes me to read it every morning when I sit at my vanity to blow dry my hair. It's gotten to the point that every time I sit down at my vanity to take off jewelry or brush my hair, he'll see me and say "baby." It's tough to tell him that we can't read the book every time. I get a kick out of hearing him try to say words like privacy, appropriate, cooperate and intelligence.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty big month of developments. Even on the days he didn't allow us to get enough sleep, Mike and I do our best to enjoy every moment with our baby. Most moments, he makes it pretty easy to do.

LOVE that boy!

His New Stylist

Last Saturday was a busy day. With 3 stores\showrooms to hit (shopping for the addition) first thing in the morning, Dylan was kind enough to wake us super early to get a quick start to the day. After those errands, I dropped the boys at home so Dylan could catch a nap and I ran to the local mall to hit a few stores for some things I needed. Then it was back to the house, lunch for all and we packed up to head out to the home show. In between home and the home show, we had one other task to accomplish for the day - Dylan's first professional haircut.

Haircuts are nothing new for the cute little guy. I gave him his first one at around 10 months of age and have given him some sort of trim just about every month since. I've gotten a lot of crap for the job I've been doing from (supposed) loved ones, friends and family. Personally, given that I'm not a professionally trained hair stylist, don't have the right tools nor the most still client, I think I've been doing a fantastic job. I don't care what all the haters said. 

Back around Christmas, I finally was convinced to try out a professional. Unfortunately, Mike missed the pre Disney haircut deadline so I continued with my chopping skills. This time, the unruly hair would meet a trained set of scissored hands - a pro at the north eastern kids hair cutting chain called Snip Its.

I have to say, in general, I was pretty impressed with the place. Upon entering, there was no doubt the place was catered to kids. Each station had it's own tv, the decor looked straight out of a cartoon and each kid gets a "surprise" at the completion of the hair cut. 

I was also, generally, impressed with our stylist. Man, did she work FAST! I have never seen hair disappear from a person's head so quickly. I don't think Dylan was in the chair more than 5 minutes. She buzzed, sprayed, snipped and trimmed almost faster then the eye could see. Very impressive! 

And, she did a great job except for one little problem. We had a bit of a language barrier. Through broken English, she gave me a general idea of how she would cut it. Towards the end, I tried to point out a few missed hairs on Dylan's bangs and she misinterpreted to cut all the bangs even shorter! Yikes! However, I took comfort in the fact that his hair grows pretty quickly and they would be a better length in just a couple of weeks (or less). In fact, after just a week, I've either gotten used to seeing them or they've grown out a bit (or both) and I think they look pretty good.

By far though, the most impressive thing at that place was Dylan. The poor kid behind us was screaming through his cut like he was continually being poked with a cattle prod. While Dylan peeked back a couple of times in concern, he stayed happy placing with a car and a tractor, watching tv and being entertained by good ol' Mom.

We were in and out of that place in less than 20 minutes, I think. Which also means that place costs a little over a dollar a minute. Steep! And ya know, now that I know how the pros get it done, I think I'm going to give it another try next time he's due. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to do as good of a job...for much less money!